Blackinnon Love
by PatronusIsAMockingjay3
Summary: The story of Marlene McKinnon and Sirius Black through sixth year and beyond. Will also include some good ol' Jily eventually, and Remry too. Rated T for language, adult themes and torture.
1. Prologue - Last Year

**Blackinnon Love**

Prologue - Fifth Year

They were all seated in a circle next to the roaring fire in Gryffindor Common Room. James had suggested, seeing as they were the last people in the Common Room, that they should play a game. Predictably, Sirius had suggested Snog Spin. Marlene groaned - of all the games... It's not that she didn't like the idea of snogging someone, it's just James was her brother in all but blood, Remus was nice but was in love with Mary, Peter was sweet but not kissing material and and Black was an arrogant prick.

"So, who's turn is it to spin?" James Potter asked, grabbing the empty Butterbeer bottle ready to flick it round.

"It's Marls, I think, seeing as she didn't get a go last time." Sirius smirked, glancing at Marlene who looked pointedly away. The last game she had endured with the Marauders had ended with Marlene being told to snog James (which she refused saying it was incest) and McGonagall breaking it up before Black made her. Marlene sighed.

The bottle spun in the centre of the Gryffindor Common Room rug for what seemed like forever, until coming to a resolute stop in front of Sirius Black. Lily Evans laughed, Remus Lupin wolf whistled and Marlene McKinnon got up to leave.

Rolling her eyes, she said "This game is stupid!" She was not going to kiss him! Not a chance in hell - he could be the best kisser in the world and she still wouldn't kiss him.

Emmeline pushed her back down on the sofa.

"There is no _way_ you are getting out of this one!" she cackled. Marlene thought about how cruel her friends could be sometimes: they knew she couldn't stand the sight of Black at the best of times, let alone when she was being made to snog him.

James and Remus hooted with laughter while Sirius just sat in his armchair and smirked at Marlene, who was sitting on the sofa opposite him, facing the door.

"No! You are NOT kissing me, you... you..." Marlene spluttered, desperately trying to escape Emmy's tight grip on her arms.

Still smirking, Sirius sauntered round their circle, round the back of the sofa and whispered into her ear. "You know you love me really, McKinnon..."

"I! I... I don't you arrogant git!" she squealed as Sirius grabbed her from behind, leaped over the back of the couch and kissed her full on the lips. "GERROFFOFME!"

James fell off the chair with laughter. Using his momentum to push him off her, Marlene glared at him as he grinned from the floor and stormed off up to her dormitory, while Hestia snorted at Sirius' pleased expression.

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**A/N: Okay, so this is my first ever story on here, so BE NICE PLEASE! Umm... To warn you, the rest of it will be in first person, from Marlene's POV or perhaps someone else's, but this prologue just screamed at me in third person. REVIEW PRETTY PLEASE WITH A SIRIUS ON TOP *flutters eyelashes at you all***

**Also, I know it's short, but I think it's okay...**

**- PIAM3**


	2. Chapter One - On the Train

**A/N: Okay, so I lied, it's gonna be third person. I decided (in my perfectionist way) that all that I had written was rubbish, so I deleted it all:P**

**It's gonna be from third person, and I hope you like it. I'm going to try to put more detail in than I had originally planned, so bear with.**

**Also, I have a few 100 word one shots, one Jily and one Blackinnon so far. If you would like one (canon or OC) just message/review and I will see what I can do!**

**-PIAM3**

**(Disclaimer - nothing that you recognise is mine, it all belongs to the Queen, okay?)**

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Chapter One - On the Train

Marlene waited anxiously at the edge of platform 9 3/4. Her parents and older brother were supposed to meet her there before she got on the train; she hadn't seen them all summer through a combination of Mason's Auror training and her staying at James'. The train hooted as children streamed on board to get the best seats. She was beginning to worry because she hadn't seen a single face she recognised in the sea of people around her. Then, as if fate had decided to be particularly cruel to her this year, she did recognise someone. But that someone was he person Marlene would have least liked to see: Sirius Black.

"Hey, McKinnon, had a nice summer?" he called as he sauntered over.

She still couldn't see her her parents and was becoming increasingly worried, but she blurted out a quick reply, "Yeah, okay thanks. Have you seen James anywhere?"

"Prongs is on the train, why?"

She flapped her hand at him, "Doesn't matter."

Sirius cocked one eyebrow, "And why, Miss McKinnon, would you need to see Prongs now? People have told me my good looks can be overpowering but I never expected that to happen this quickly," he smirked.

She flapped her hand again and glared.

The train blasted one final boot to signal that it was about to leave. Marlene cast one worried glance behind her before she clambered on board the Hogwarts Express; finding the girls in a carriage, she said hi and sat down next to Lily. Emmy, Hestia and Mary were very excited to hear about her summer at James, but Lily snorted and turned away, choosing to look out of the window at the blurred countryside. The girls talked and talked, Marlene bought them all stuff from the trolley and they all stuffed their faces, even Mary, who was (unnecessarily) watching her weight.

Then, the door to the compartment swung open with a flourish. Lily glared angrily as the forms of the Marauders came in and sat down.

"Get out!"

"No, Lilyflower, you know you want us here really," James said cockily.

Marlene sighed, "James... Leave her alone!" She didn't want to spend the next few hours calming an irate Lily down, thank you very much!

Remus sidled in after the others and smiled at Mary who squealed and hugged him tightly. Marlene smiled, they were really sweet together and she had hoped for ages before they got together that they would.

Sirius Black sauntered in and smirked at Marlene, she just glared at him in return.

"Your parents didn't show then?" he said as he sat opposite her, stretching his long legs across her lap. Her heart sped up a little but she mentally slapped herself and sneered at him, "Why do you care?"

He looked taken aback, but ruffled his head and smirked at her with his head to one side, "You looked worried! Sheesh!"

Leaping to her feet and shoving his legs off her, she snorted and stormed from the carriage. Her worst fears had been confirmed; her parents were in trouble, Mason, her amazing big brother was in danger right _now_ and there was nothing she could do.

Slipping down the side of the train wall, she rested her head on her knees and sobbed. Marlene heard gentle footsteps pad along the corridor and stop next to her. The voice spoke softly, resting a hand on her messed up hair.

"Marls? What's wrong?" James said sitting next to her. Concern showed in his bright hazel eyes and he knew something was up, something big.

"It's... It's... My parents," she said sobbing into his shoulder, "They promised they would be there, and they weren't... James, they didn't get here!"

Marlene's parents were famous Aurors, and her oldest brother Mason had finished his Auror training over the Summer. That put her and her whole family in danger from Voldemort's followers and she was always worrying about them, especially Mason: he was more like a second father the amount of times he had looked after her and her younger brother when her parents were on missions. James, having never had to worry about his parents like this, wasn't really sure what to say or do: his father had a desk job in the Ministry and his mother was a Healer, they never ran around the country saving lives.

"I... Umm... It'll be okay, Marls, I'm sure they're just running late," he said unconvincingly. He put his arm awkwardly around her shoulder and she leant her head on his broad shoulder, her honey blonde hair cascading around her face and covering her tearful eyes.

The doors swung open and out of the compartment came Lily. Marlene and Lily had really not liked each other until half way through second year when Marlene had told Lily about a prank the Marauders had been planning; that information had allowed Lily to reverse the spells so the boys were the ones left with bright pink robes. The girls had been inseparable ever since.

"Marley?! What's wrong!" she squealed and rushed to sit on the other side of Marlene.

She sniffed and wiped her nose with her jumped sleeve, pulling on a loose thread, "M'parents didn't turn up at the station. S'fine though..."

Lily fling her arms around the girl, her little arms holding Marlene close. Even though Lily was a Muggleborn, she knew all about the dangers Marlene's family faced because of the fact that they were similar to her own family's problem and unlike James knew exactly what to say.

"Mason probably convinced them not to come because you'd 'be embarrassed' or something, you know how he is!"

Marlene gave the red haired girl a shaky smile and stood up brushing off her jeans, "Right as usual, Lils."

Then James stood up, "Alright, Evans?"

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"Helping Marls! She's my friend too you know!" James protested, raking his hands through his unruly black hair.

Lily snorted and dragged Marlene angrily back to the girls compartment which the Marauders had vacated after Marlene ran off, feeling guilty for reducing the usually bubbly girl to tears.

Mary MacDonald and Emmeline Vance embraced her and patted her hair down before forcing her to forget about it all with their usual tactic: gossip.

"Have you heard, Potter is going out with this Ravenclaw girl the year below us, Leah something," Mary said excitedly, slyly glancing sideways at Lily who was trying not to look bothered by this piece of news, even though Mary knew it was a straight out lie, James would never date anyone but Lily.

"Leah Newman, she's okay I guess..." Marlene supplied - she knew extensively more about the Marauders than any other Gryffindor girl, being best friends with James, and had cottoned on to the lie when Mary sent her a wink.

Lily snorted with derision, "She's a flirt."

"So? She's really pretty, and sly too! No wonder James was caught by her," Emmy put in. She had known Leah from the town she had grown up in. They were both halfbloods but had grown apart after being sorted into different houses. Emmeline also knew that Leah would never date a Gryffindor: she thought them all completely intolerable, apart frlom Sirius, who she said was more Slytherin that a Gryffindor should be, which Emmeline agreed with.

The four of them, and Hestia from Ravenclaw, knew more than even the Marauders about the goings on in the castle: Marlene gave information about the Marauders and passage ways; Lily knew, academically, things about almost everyone; Emmy used to he friends with Leah giving them access to Ravenclaw and Hestia was a Ravenclaw herself and Mary just adored juicy gossip overall. They were an unstoppable force that even James was wary of.

The rest of the train journey passed uneventfully with the girls eating too much chocolate and applying too much lipgloss. The carriages brought them to Hogwarts with Lily insisting, like every year, that the ghost horses she could see were really there and they settled down to an excellent feast.

"AHHH, it feels so good to be back!" Marlene said sleepily. Good food always had the effect of making her exhausted, meaning she was always sleepy after dinner both at home and school where house elves cooked everything.

"I know what else would feel good," Sirius said winking at her from a few seats down. Marlene looked away disgusted and stuck her nose up, turning to Lily instead, "I bet you three galleons that James asks you out by the end of the day!"

Lily Evans sighed, her red hair fluttering, "Fine... This isn't fair, you know? You know he will!"

"Evans! Wanna come and sit with me?" James said as if on cue, "Make it a date, you know you want to..."

Lily hexed him under the table as she handed the money over to Marlene, "Tell me again why I agreed to that bet?"

"Because you love me," Marlene grinned.


	3. Chapter Two - In the Common Room

**Okay, sorry updating took so long, I had a lot of things to do, and my friend was torturing me with dramatic RPs on MNI... But we had a few power cuts which meant I had time to write a lot. It's a long chapter than normal, so REVIEW BECAUSE YOU ARE AWESOME! *pleading face* :P**

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Chapter Two - In the Common Room

Marlene and Lily were sitting at a table in the corner of the Gryffindor Common Room trying to complete some pretty important homework when the other girls came in. The table was starting to become rather crowded with Lily and Emmy sharing a seat, and Mary perched precariously on the edge of the table. Overall, it was pretty funny to watch, and James laughed from where he was sitting, quite comfortably, on the sofa by the hearth as Lily squealed, "Emmy you heavy lump! Move!" Emmeline giggled and squirmed as Lily tickled her. She was deadly ticklish, which the others used to their advantage all the time, "Not fair, Lils!"

Hearing a quiet knock on the door, Mary leaped up smiling, "That'll be Hestia! Another one to fit on the one table," she joked. She walked over to the portrait hole and opened it, peeking her head round to check it actually was Hestia, and not some idiot's idea of a joke. It was Hestia.

"Hey guys!" she said, giving Mary a hug and running over to the table, almost, but not quite, knocking Emmeline off Lily's lap. Marlene cheered, abandoning her essay and knocking her quill off the table with her elbow as she hugged Hestia. Because Hestia was a Ravenclaw, the girls haDn't seen her since the train but they almost always met up in the Gryffindor Common Room after dinner: this was quite controversial with many Gryffindors, but the professors had no problem with the arrangement as long as Hestia wasn't told the password to Gryffindor Tower.

The girls chatted and laughed loudly, enjoying the time together back at Hogwarts. "So, has Black spoken to you after last years Truth and Dare incident?" Hestia said, glancing over to the Marauders and smirking. Marlene frowned, "Yeah, once - at the station, when I was panicking about my parents, he asked what was wrong." "I say he likes you," Mary said, also looking over at the Marauders, but gazing at Remus instead of the Sirius Black they were discussing: Marlene couldn't help but smile, they were perfect for each other. Then she real side what Mary had said, and what impressions her reaction might give. "No he doesn't! He is just a man whore who doesn't know the meaning of fancying," she said with a frown.

Then the black haired scruff that was James Potter walked over from where they had been sitting and smirked at Lily, "Evening, Evans... But hello there, Jones." He turned to Marlene with fake surprise, "Why is there a Ravenclaw in the Gryffindor Tower, Marls!" Lily gritted her teeth not realising it was a joke, "You're one to talk, sneaking off to the Hufflepuff Common Room to plant stink bombs and such!" James pretended to look innocent, which didn't work and just made him look demented, "Who, me?" "Yes, Potter, you! I caught you on Prefect patrol!" Lily fumed.

Sirius laughed and glanced at Marlene who was laughing at James' stupidity: everyone knows you don't cross Lily Evans. But it was the wrong thing to do as Lily turned to Sirius, "And don't even get me started on you, Black!" Sirius, more cleverly than James, didn't try the innocent routine, instead angling for 'extremely sorry, Evans, I won't do it again, Evans'. Unfortunately, Lily was really losing it this evening, and it didn't help at all. In fact, it made it a hundred times worse. "But you're NOT! You will do it again. And again. And again, Black, and you know it! ARGH!"

The common room was rapidly clearing and Hestia looked awkward as they argued around her. Mary tried to help but there was nothing she could do, another James and Lily feud was starting. Granted, it wasn't as bad as the one after last year's truth and dare episode where Lily had screamed at Sirius for being a 'man whore who can't tell when you aren't wanted' and James had tried to defend his best friend.

"You're all as bad as each other! Apart from Remus," she admitted with a friendly nod towards the pale boy, who smiled back but still kept well out of it all. Marlene had to say, he was easily the most sensible. The argument continued for another half an hour before Marlene slumped on the floor, her head against the table. She rolled her eyes and settled down. She couldn't go to bed until it was finished, Lily's screaming and ranting would see to that, and she couldn't escape any where else as it was past curfew. Only Remus noticed Sirius glancing over to Marlene as she closed her eyes. He, as well as being the sensible one, noticed everything, and smiled to himself as Sirius sat there, blocking out the tirade of anger around him. Sirius, like Marlene, knew he would just have to wait it out, and had decided to watch Marlene sleep. Not that he fancied her or anything, he told himself, she was basically James' sister, and you don't date your best friend's sister. Not that Sirius dated either.

Marlene let her eyes drift shut as she let the harsh words of her two best friends drift over her. She didn't get why they always fought; James was madly in love with Lily, and Lily also returned the feeling, even if she herself didn't see it. She sighed. But there was nothing she could do, and meddling herself would only cause more strife, and Merlin knows she'd had enough of that to last her a lifetime. After a few more minutes, Lily threw her hands up, shouted one more 'ARROGANT IDIOT' before James gave up and walked off towards the boys stairs. Sirius got up and followed him, "I'll talk to him, Moony, you stay here if you want..."

Marlene got up too, and with a yawn said goodbye to Mary, the only one left. Hestia had crept off with muttered apologies for abandoning the girls, and Emmy had gone to her bed long ago. Mary shook her head, "I'm coming up too. This fight was longer than usual," she sighed. This left just the angry Lily and the passive Remus.

There was silence for a minute while Lily calmed down enough to actually communicate in something quieter than a shout.

"Argh, Remus, he makes me so mad!" Lily said, collapsing in an armchair opposite where Remus was lying on the couch.

Remus chuckled, "We can tell, Lily..."

"And Black does _not_ help! All he does is make things worse and make crude comments about girls!"

Then Remus took more interest, this had been playing on his mind since the end of last year, at the fateful game of truth and dare, "Ah, Lily, he used to, but have you noticed that he hasn't once said anything like that this year?" Remus knew there was a reason for this, and he had his suspicions, but wanted to get someone else's opinion before he began meddling.

Lily thought about it for a second, then her emerald eyes widened, "He hasn't, has he?"

"Nope."

"Do you know why?"

"Maybe..."

Lily sighed, "Remus, I'm not in the mood for games, just tell me your idea or I will thump you like I did Potter." She actually had hit him, too, whacked him right round the face after a particularly stereotypical comment about Ravenclaws. He sighed and thought over what he had seen: overall, he thought it looked likely.

"I think he likes Marlene."

Lily raised an eyebrow, "As in, 'he thinks she's fit so will check her out, take her to a broom cupboard a few times then leave her' like?"

"Noooooo, as in, /like/ her. Fancy her. Has a crush on her."

Lily snorted, "Sirius Black has a crush? No way, Merlin help me, no way!"

"Lily, think about it. He chose her for the snog, he was watching her on the platform and tried to help her on the train. Kind of. He talks to her normally rather than just to irritate her and was staring at her the whole time you and James were arguing, it kinda adds up."

Lily's brain was whirring, memories and comments slotting together, and little alarms were ringing, "He does! Remus you genius! Oh wow! This is awesome, we have to get them together!"

Remus looked worried, "But Marlene doesn't like him! Since Truth and Dare last year, she's avoided him."

"Ahh, Remus, just you watch and learn; get ready for Lily Evans, match maker extraordinaire "


	4. Chapter Three - First Lesson Back

**Okay, I hope people are very annoyed that I haven't updated recently... Bad PIAM, bad me, I know. But I've rewarded you with an extra long chapter! Whoop! So I had a review that said they wanted some more things about the war around us, so the concept it dedicated to you, loving reviewer.**

**See what reviewing gets you! Control over the story! So if you have an idea, review/PM me and I'll see what I can do!**

**- PIAM 3 xx**

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Chapter Three - First Lesson Back

In the morning, the girls all rolled out of bed, grumbling and moaning about lessons, homework, and boys. Lily was still complaining about James, but couldn't help giving Marlene a sly glance when she mentioned Sirius. It didn't look like Marlene even registered his name, let alone blush showing hidden crushes or such like. But Lily wasn't deterred.

After a quick breakfast the girls headed off to their first lesson, Defense Against the Dark Arts. It had almost become a joke trying to guess what kind of teacher they would have this year. Marlene was hoping they would have an Auror, so she could keep in contact with her parents, Hestia wanted a bloke she could flirt with, and Lily wanted someone smart, but nice. It was interesting how different the girls were, when it came down to it.

They entered the DADA classroom tentatively - they had absolutely no idea what kind of teacher they would get, despite the Marauders holding bets about the skill and looks of the professor. Lily wanted to sit near the front, like usual, but Marlene and Hestia convinced her to sit at the back.

"One, it's silly to sit at the front - you look like a nerd!" she said as Lily frowned however Marlene didn't stop, "Two, sitting at the front means enchanted paper aeroplanes from James pecking your head all lesson anyway."

Lily had to agree with that.

"And three, Black hates it when he can't sit in his 'special spot' at the back..." Marlene concluded.

Lily smirked to herself - why did Marlene keep bringing Black up if she claimed she didn't like him? It could be revenge for last year; but somehow the redhead didn't think so.

Then the Marauders came in. Swaggering like they owned the place, they flung the door open and sauntered in. Automatically walking towards the back, Black glanced behind him and didn't notice that the girls were already there.

"Padfoot! We have invaders!" James called before Sirius managed to sit on Mary's lap.

Sirius looked around then glared at Marlene and the girls, "Excuse me? That's our seat!"

But Marlene just frowned, and crossed her arms. She wasn't going to budge any time soon: she wanted to sit here, so sit here she would. She opened her mouth to reply to Sirius but they were saved by the new professor entering the room at that exact moment, with a slight smile on her face like she knew what had happened. Lily looked at her expectantly - this was different, they hadn't had a female DADA teacher before. Sirius just laughed at Lily's expression, and took the empty seat in front of Marlene, with James next to him and Remus and Peter opposite them across the aisle.

"Good morning sixth years, I am your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Sybero. This year we will be focussing on defensive spells as well as a few offensive hexes. The reason for this is something I'm sure most of you know about or have heard of. There is a danger lurking, a danger that goes by the name of Voldemort, and it is he above all else that should fear."

Sirius leaned over to James while Sybero was talking and whispered in his ear, "I'm not scared of any Death Eater. I can name them all anyway, seeing as they're on my family tree every time I go home..."

James laughed and leaned over to reply but stopped as Lily glared at him from behind, her emerald eyes flashing dangerously. He actually wanted to date Lily this year, and was going to take Marlene's advice about 'growing up and stopping being an almighty prick'. Her words.

Sybero continued, ignoring the boy's interruption, "So this lesson will be the start of a six week course of practical, useful DADA, things you will actually need to know in this war: today, we will be duelling, a skill that could save your life. After we've gone through the six week course, you will be revisiting anything _you_ are struggling with, independently improving, got it?"

There was a collective gasp from around the classroom from the Hufflepuffs, and the Gryffindors just rolled their eyes at the panicked students, while the Marauders turned to each other and grinned with glee. Lily, being a Prefect, had some concerns. Lily always had concerns, Marlene thought to herself, none of them ever reasonable.

"What is someone hurts them self? What if someone uses a bad spell?" At that she glanced at James and Sirius who were currently prodding each other with enchanted sticks, Sirius yelling as one hit his eye. "What if some one DIES?!"

Marlene rolled her eyes and laughed, patting Lily's head, "Naahh, it'll be fine, Lils, just wait and see!"

Lily muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like 'Potter will muck it up' before sighing.

Professor Sybero gave instructions to move all the tables and chairs to the back of the classroom, and the students scraped their chairs back as they got on with the task. Remus, seeing the boys distracted; glanced sideways at Lily and motioned for her to join him by the door. She went over, curiosity winning over wanting to get on with the job.

"What do you want, Remus?"

"Following on from last night, I have a plan... About Marlene and Sirius..." he whispered, "I think we can get them to work together this lesson..."

Lily raised an eyebrow, "You do? How? They'd never choose to go together."

"Marlene would normally choose you and Sirius would normally go with with me in DADA, that's the way it's always been. If we, you and I, partner up, they'll be forced to go together instead!"

Lily didn't really think that that would work - Marlene would just partner Emmeline or Mary, and Sirius would choose Potter or Pettigrew - but it was worth a try, so she nodded in agreement. "What if you told the others to go together, so it leaves no one else," Lily suggested. Remus grinned mischievously, reminding Lily that he was a Marauder as well, and went back to moving tables.

Transfiguring the floor into a padded mat, Professor Sybero called out, "Right, gather round a minute, please!"

Everyone shuffled over, a little unsteady on the foamy floor, and stood in a semi circle facing the new teacher. The girls stood to one side, with James trying to stand next to Lily, and failing as she pushed him over. Marlene snorted and looked away as James clambered up. She loved it when her friend got angry at James, because it gave her more stories to tell his parents when she visited. The best one was Lily freezing him, and actually attempting to feed him to the Giant Squid one day.

"So, please partner up - in a minute Potter - and your parter and yourself will find an area to work in. Please, only mild spells, none that draw blood, and definitely no Dark Magic. Defensive spells are allowed, and once you have been disarmed - yes Black, only disarming allowed - you will sit out for the lesson. Your homework will be to practise the spells that you opponent uses successfully against you."

"But Professor, that means some people won't get homework... If they win, no spells have successfully been used against them..." Lily said aghast, that wasn't fair!

"Correct, Miss Evans. If you are smart enough not to get hit, you are smart enough not to need the homework," Sybero said with a glance at Lily, then returned to addressing the whole class.

"Partners then, if you would."

Remus gave Lily a sly glance and she smiled back. She had, while they were finishing moving the tables, informed the others of their plan, and Emmy and Mary couldn't stop giggling. They looked at each other and said, "Partners!" before breaking down into giggles again. Marlene looked confused and shook her head, "Some one's slipped something into your pumpkin juice," she joked then turned to Lily.

"Partners like usual?"

Then the plan went into action, "I'm sorry, Marls, I said I'd go with Remus. We thought, seeing as we do Prefect rounds together, that it might be a good idea if we got to know each other's duelling styles, sorry..." Lily said, trying to sound apologetic.

She nodded despondently, then turned to James, as a last resort, "Jamessss," she began, fluttering her long eyelashes, "Will you go with me?"

James smirked, then turned it quickly into a sad smile, "I'm already going with Wormy, Marls, sorry."

Marlene glared at James.

"There's always Sirius, he's stuck without anyone too, partner him," Remus put in.

Marlene glared at Sirius but knew she kind of had to listen to Remus, "Fine!"

Sirius hid a smile, and acted as if this was the worst outcome possible. They arranged themselves around the room and drew their wands ready for Sybero to tell them to begin.

Lily and Remus were looking forward to this; they were both at a similar level in DADA, and the duel would be really interesting. Lily was determined to show the new Professor that although she was a Muggle born, she could still be a good witch, Remus wanted to prove to himself that the wolf wouldn't stop him from helping in the war, and both of them just wanted to win. Lily's fiery temper and her competitiveness meant the girls knew to just let her win. Marlene was the only one who didn't let Lily win for the sake of peace. Her parents, being Aurors, had made sure her and her brothers could defend themselves from an early age - even her little brother Josh could use Protego, and he wasn't meant to know that yet, he was just starting his fifth year. So when Sirius smirked at her, she almost growled at him.

Sybero looked around, and opened her mouth to start the duels, "Remember, no dangerous spells please. You may begin!"

Sirius turned to Marlene and smirked. Even if he went down on one knee and declared true love to her like James had tried with Lily he still wouldn't let her win. Fancying the girl you were fighting, for Sirius didn't equate to letting her humiliate him. Even though he was the polar opposite of the rest of his family, Sirius was still extremely proud; he was not about to be beaten by Marlene McKinnon. She rolled her eyes and raised her wand. Over the summer, her and her brother had been practising non-verbal spells, which had the advantage in a duel. The only problem was, everyone knew that the Marauders were intelligent, and probably could do non-verbal magic too. James certainly could, Marlene reflected. So she couldn't slack off in this: she wanted to win, to take Black down a peg or two, because Merlin knows he was too arrogant for his own good. Sirius let Marlene start with a nod of his head, and she grinned. Exactly what she wanted. She flicked her wand and thought the spell 'Rictumsempra' and a flash of gold light came from her wand. For a split second, Sirius was stumped, then remembered that he was a wizard. Casting a quick protego, he reflected the spell back to Marlene and she had to doge out of the way. Sirius now knew she could use non-verbal magic, so responded in kind.

'Expelliarmus!' he tried and it whooshed past Marlene's ear and she could see the green light flash past.

Meanwhile, Lily and Remus were duelling ferociously, already out of breath at the speed of the battle. Remus was suffering from a near direct hit of the Jelly Legs Jinx while Lily's hair was now black and her skin was very tanned, due to a miscast Colour Change Hex. But neither was about to give up, and their wands flew and danced with the endless torrent of offensive and defensive spells being cast.

However, seeing Lily so different to her usual fiery self had distracted him immensely, allowing Peter to grin and disarm him quickly. Peter rarely beat the other boys in anything, and his pride blocked out the fact that if James had been focusing he would never have won. James turned to Peter and pouted, "Unfair! I was gazing at my true love and you attacked me!"

Peter smirked and replied, "I technically didn't attack you, I just disarmed you."

He walked off happily to sit on a table to watch the others battle. James followed him good naturedly. He never complained if someone beat him; it was Sirius who was a sore loser. His eyes drifted back to Lily who looked so very different with raven black hair. It didn't suit her, he thought, her eyes look cruel now, like a cat's eyes not the emeralds they normally were. Then he shook his head and turned his gaze to where Marlene and Sirius were duelling, also furiously attacking, neither took being beaten very well, and James allowed himself to imagine what might happen if they stopped hating each other and started working together. And on the Quidditch pitch, he thought with glee, if they combined and worked as a team rather than sneering and making comments about each other the team would improve instantly. But Sirius always would make sleazy suggestions to Marlene, and Marlene always would retort with some nasty comment about Sirius' latest girl. That was the way it worked.

But seeing the pair duel was scary: they had always tolerated each other for James' sake, but now there was nothing to stop them literally attacking eachother. And James knew Sirius - he would'nt stop at something forbidden to win, he could and probably would hurt someone to get what he wanted. However as James looked over Sirius, his hair tousled, a longer version of James' own wind tossed hairstyle, his face stretched into an arrogant smirk as he almost hit Marlene with a hex, something caught his attention. While Marlene's eyes were hard and cold, Sirius was regarding the tall blonde with happiness, even enjoyment, as if there was nothing better than being right there with her. James was confused; Sirius never wanted to be around Marlene as a person, he just liked being around fit girls. Marlene was tiring fast now, and her spells were slower and less accurate. Lily and Remus were still duelling and she swore that they were inventing spells now. Sybero was certainly impressed with them. But no matter how tired she was she was not going to lose to Black of all people. She growled at him and raised her wand to send a stunning spell right at him but she stumbled on the padded floor and fell spread-eagled on the floor and her wand flew away as Sirius cried "Expelliarmus," taking advantage of her fall. Marlene hissed at him and scrambled to her feet only to be hit by reducto seconds later.

"Sirius Black you PRICK!" Marlene growled and he sauntered over to her and picked up her discarded wand, drumming with them on her head.

"What was that, McKinnon? I didn't quite catch that..."

"I said, fuck off!"

He sucked in a quick breath, "Now that's not very nice, McKinnon dearie, a sore loser are we?"

She glared up at him and stuck her tongue out. Sirius chuckled and sat down next to her, half crossing his legs and stretching out. Marlene glared at him again, then smirked. She bet he didn't know she could fist fight too... And the professor had only said no dangerous magic, she reasoned.

"Stand up," she commanded.

Sirius turned his head and blinked at her, "Why?"

"Just do it, Black, before I bite your arrogant, slaggy head off," she threatened.

He looked bemused and stood up, his hands at his sides, "Now what? Seems like a perfect time to kiss if you ask me..."

Marlene snorted and kneed him between the legs, making him crumple down again in pain. "Ow McKinnon, what the HELL?"

"That's what you get for beating me," she said smugly, enjoying seeing the normally flawless Sirius Black wheezing on the floor in pain. Then he recovered and grabbed her ankles with a dog like growl, dragging her down with him.

Sybero was oblivious to this, praising and pointing things out to Remus and Lily who were STILL duelling, and was shouting improvements all the time. However, James and Peter were watching what was happening with Marlene and Sirius with trepidation.

"I'm scared he'll turn into Padfoot and give it all away," Peter said paling as they continued trying to hit each other.

James laughed - Marlene already suspected what was going on and had quizzed him over the holidays, "Sirius wouldn't. The repercussions are not worth it," he said to reassure his friend.

"Do you think he'll hurt Marlene?" Peter whimpered as she hit him round the head and laughed as he muttered 'ouch'.

James shook his head, "Nah, he's got this thing about not hitting girls, the stupid fool."

Peter breathed a sigh of relief, "Good!"

Eventually, Sirius gave up. Marlene was incredible at hand to hand combat, and Sirius despite being ridiculously stupid and reckless couldn't bring himself to hit her back, so he let Marlene punch his arm. To be fair what he had done to win was low, Remus would've just helped her up but Sirius disarmed her instead. But Marlene was done now, and just hung there above him, her hair dangling into his face, "Okay I'm done now, Black, you can stop crying," she joked licking her lip. That was when Sirius realised just how close she was to him, and just how this must look to anyone else. He smirked.

Lily and Remus had finished, calling a draw, before looking over at Marlene and Sirius, looking back at each other and nodding triumphantly. Lily turned her hair and skin back to normal but not before calling over with a grin, "OI LOVEBIRDS! Lesson's over!"

Marlene scrambled up and blushed, grabbing bag from the back of the classroom and racing out of the classroom, "WE ARE NOT LOVEBIRDS!"


	5. Chapter Four - Returning to Quidditch

**Hello, a very quick update this time, because I was so bored over the weekend I wrote two new chapters... TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS! So I hope my reward is extra reviews... *flutters eyelashes***

**A quick shout out to StephaniePotter7 for reviewing every single chapter (Wow, thank you!) and making me laugh, LOVE YOU TWINNY!**

**- PIAM 3**

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Chapter Five - Back to Quidditch

It was the second week of term, and everyone was already settled down into their routines and had become accustomed to the early mornings and long lessons. Already the homework was piling up but James had just shrugged that fact off and was focusing on Quidditch. Despite being only a sixth year, he had been made Quidditch captain and had made Sirius vice captain. Marlene had scowled at that - more of Sirius bossing people around was not what the world needed.

"Marlene, would you pin this notice up on the board in the Common Room, please? It's a note about Quidditch trials tomorrow morning. Seeing as it's a Saturday I thought it would be ideal," James explained handing her the parchment and pushing his glasses up his nose.

Marlene nodded, "I'll put it up now. Same team as last year right?"

"Yeah, but we need a new Seeker and Keeper now the Prewett twins have left, but you're still on the team, as well Sirius, obviously."

Marlene sneered, "Obviously Sirius would be."

James frowned, "Hey! He's just as good a player as you are, no need for that."

"Like he won't use his new power to boss people around even more! Like he won't use it to get more innocent girls into broom cupboards!"

He rolled his eyes and patted Marlene's head, "I, James Harold Potter, solemnly swear I will control my friend, Sirius Orion Black. There, that any better?"

"Fine," Marlene huffed before heading down the boys' stairs to the Common Room to pin up the notice.

Once she'd done that, she stood on the table and coughed loudly to get everyone's attention. Most people turned to her, guessing that it would be about Quidditch.

"Trials are tomorrow by order of our illustrious captain, James Potter. We need a Keeper and a Seeker, so we don't need anyone turning up with a bat okay? And please don't turn up if you can't fly either," Marlene hollered as people turned to listen, "Tomorrow morning at nine, don't be late!"

A voice came from behind her as she stepped down from the table awkwardly.

"Nice arse, McKinnon."

She sighed and turned around once she was standing normally, her arms folded, an unimpressed look on her face. Black, of course.

"I would say thank you, but coming from your sleazy mouth I'm not counting it as a compliment," she said cuttingly.

He shrugged and continued unperturbed, "You gonna be at practise tomorrow?"

She laughed, "Of course, I'm on the team aren't I?" Marlene raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but some of the others aren't going, so I wondered if you were or not, no need to bite my head off!"

Marlene knew she was being rude today, and not even Black's comment needed that much anger, even if he was seriously irritating. It was just that she still hasn't heard from her parents at all, and was starting to seriously worry. It wasn't like them to not keep in touch, and Mason always wrote to her, always. She bit her bottom lip and her blue eyes started to water.

"McKinnon, are you okay?" Sirius said with slight concern as he saw her normally bright eyes cloud over.

She nodded determinedly and turned around abruptly to return to her dorm to do some homework. That might take her mind off it, she thought. Sirius frowned - Marlene was never upset or down, she was like him, always laughing and joking, so what was up? He would ask James. Half running, half trying not to seem too concerned, he went up his stairs and threw open the door like he always did, making it bang against the stone wall behind with a loud thud.

"Prongs, mate, got any idea why McKinnon is upset?" he said laying on his bed casually, seemingly unconcerned.

James turned to him, running his hand through his hair, "I didn't even notice she was! Since when did you notice anything emotional?! What did you do, Sirius?" he sighed.

Sirius shrugged, "I just said that some of the team weren't going to the trials tomorrow and she got all teary, I didn't do a thing, I swear."

James bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to think of a reason that that comment might set Marlene off, but couldn't think of one. He might be one of Marlene's best friends, but he was a boy, a teenage boy at that, and never really understood why girls got upset over things. Boys would keep it in, or punch someone, but girls were a different story; they would bitch, and get teary, and pretend things were fine, and lie, and... James just didn't get them at all.

Marlene had escaped to her room and was trying to focus on a book she had to read for Care of Magical Creatures, but her mind wasn't really on it, her eyes looking through the pages not at them, and all she saw was a blur of white and black. Maybe Quidditch would help take her mind off it, she reasoned, after all Quidditch was relaxing. Then again, Black would be there. She scowled, and fell asleep sometime later, still in her school clothes, the book falling to the floor as her muscles relaxed.

However, the next morning, she was feeling much cheerier and got into her Quidditch gear with a smile. A whole morning on a broom away from work and responsibilities, she thought with glee. And she would be with James and Emmy too. What more could one want?

At breakfast, Mary and Lily kept well away from Emmy and Marlene. Both of the other girls weren't fans of Quidditch and had learned to stay out of the way when you got Em and Marlene on the subject of the sport. In the same way James could go on for hours discussing tactics, the pair would discuss which players were hot for hours too.

"Black is really fit though Marls," Emmy was arguing, "Why would you snog Fenwick but not snog him?!"

Marlene sighed and rested her head on her hand, they had been through this every Quidditch match since forever, "Because he is an arrogant, self involved, slutty, irritating, stuck up, egotistical idiot," she said reeling off the long list of reasons she hated Sirius Black.

"But he's so fit!" Em protested, "Come on Marls, you can't say he isn't - just look at him!"

She rolled her eyes, "Any fool knows he's hot but my point is looks aren't everything."

Just then the Marauders entered the Hall, both Sirius and James in their Quidditch uniform causing quite a few girls to swoon. Walking behind the girls, Sirius smirked, "Why thank you, McKinnon, although I did know I was hot already it's always nice to get a compliment."

Marlene turned around with contempt, her hair flying in a blonde sheet behind her, "The fact that you've sunk so low as to sneak up on people to hear them say you're hot just proves my point."

"That I'm goddamn sexy?" Sirius smirked.

"ARGH! That you're an idiot!" Marlene fumed, and swung round to continue eating, ignoring the wink Sirius sent to Emmy.

James dragged Sirius off to sit at the other end of the table. "So much for a calm day," he remarked to Remus and Peter, who had sat down before the spat.

Remus looked up from his plate of bacon and eggs, "Hmm, Prongs?"

"This one," he said pointing to Sirius, "Decided waiting until after breakfast to piss Marlene off was boring, like he does most days, so just had to get her too frustrated to play Quidditch properly!"

Sirius just smirked and sat opposite Peter.

"Not funny Padfoot! The team might suffer now because of your ability to piss her off so completely," James said, getting worked up like he always did about 'the most noble of sports'.

"James, it really won't make a difference," Peter pointed out through a mouthful of toast, "In fact it might make her play better!"

James grumbled under his breath but conceded defeat and sat down to grab some breakfast, still giving Sirius sideways glares. He hated how Sirius irritated her - she obviously didn't like him, so why even bother? Then again, James hadn't followed that when it came to Lily. But that was different, because James liked Lily, and Sirius just loved to irritate Marlene.

However if Remus could've read James' thoughts, he would've disagreed. He had heard the exchange, and was the only one to notice the tone of Marlene's voice when she listed why she hated Sirius. It was similar to Lily's voice as she said why she wouldn't date James: all were perfectly true but just she didn't sound convinced. Marlene was the same. All of the things she had about Sirius were true, he was arrogant, slutty and irritating, but Marlene hadn't really sounded sure when she spoke them. Like she didn't want to believe that about Sirius. So Remus smirked - Lily would be interested to hear about that little thought of his. He could tell her while they watched the trials.

Sirius, James, Marlene and Emmy walked down together. The other remaining member of last year's team was Benjy Fenwick, a seventh year who genuinely didn't mind being older than James and not captain. The only problem was that everyone knew he fancied Marlene, which made things a little awkward. Marlene herself was oblivious, waving it off saying 'We're just team mates' but Gideon Prewett, who was captain the year before, was always telling Benjy off for focussing on her not on the Bludgers. On the way down, Marlene got Emmy to put her hair up into a tight ballerina bun, which was the only style that stayed in place while she was flying. Emmy's own wavy brown hair was simply plaited down her back, but Marlene's blonde hair rebelled against most forms of hair control, only liberal amounts of Sleak-easy holding it down when she wanted it completely straight. Sirius found himself staring at the back of Marlene's neck as they walked; it was very smooth and very pale, not a mark in sight, Sirius thought, perfect for kissing and - no. He did not want to kiss McKinnon. Not at all. Even if she was hot, she was James' little sister in all but blood, and Sirius knew never to break the whole 'don't date the sister' rule.

James nudged his friend as they arrived at the pitch, "Come on, let's talk tactics."

Sirius groaned, "You and talking tactics don't go well together."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you will talk tactics for hours!"

"There's not a lot of tactics you can talk about for a trial anyway," Marlene put in, "It's just a matter of finding someone to who fits in with the team."

James nodded, "True. Come on then, let's get this over with."

However, James being James, he still managed to find a way to have a prep talk even though it wasn't a match.

"Last year we lost to Slytherin. That is NOT happening again," James started vehemently once everyone was seated in the changing room, "Last year we had a good team. But it wasn't good enough enough. To be fair to us, the whole Slytherin team was bought new brooms, courtesy of Malfoy, which was a bit of a disadvantage, but that doesn't matter! This trial will determine our team for the whole of the year. This trial will determine whether Gryffindor wins like it should. This trial determines, in a round about way, our lives this year. I'm determined to win. Those creeps in Slytherin are NOT taking our crown again," James said fiercely.

Marlene, having sat through these talks even longer than Sirius had, having got them since the age of 8 when they practised with her brothers, knew this could take a while. The trial wasn't due to start for another half an hour and James would talk for that whole time. She shifted on the bench and dropped her head onto Benjy's shoulder with a yawn. It didn't help she had been woken by James hollering in her ear at 5 in the morning for a 'warm up session'. Benjy looked down and smirked, looking round the team with a triumphant expression. Sirius saw the look and glared back at Benjy, causing his smirk to widen into a sneer. Sirius growled under his breath and cursed Benjy. He knew Benjy was normally a very nice person, but he must've guessed that Sirius didn't like what was happening, and that tending to make boys a little bit smug. Marlene just sighed, once again completely oblivious, and waited for James to stop talking.

"James, mate, as noble as this is Marlene is already falling asleep, and it's kind of uncomfortable..." Benjy said, his words and his expression contrasting. He didn't mind at all that Marlene was falling asleep on his shoulder. James looked surprised, "How long was I talking for?"

Emmy looked at her Muggle watch, "About fifteen minutes..."

"Um, sorry guys. Let's go and get organised."

Marlene lifted her head and smiled at Benjy, "Your shoulder is a nice place to sleep, I shall have to sleep there next time." Benjy beamed. Sirius just rolled his eyes and followed James out of the changing rooms and onto the pitch. There was quite a few people in the stands by that point, a lot of friends of players, and a few random spectators. And to James' dismay, a whole load of Sirius' fangirls.

"Pads, mate, don't let them distract you," James sighed in a way that led Marlene to suspect they had had that conversation many many times before. She also guessed that Sirius also replied the same time.

"Of course not, when do I ever?" Sirius replied with an arrogant grin. James rolled his eyes.

She pursed her lips: yup, every time.

"Okay!" James clapped his hands to get everyone's attention, "First, I just need to check. All Gryffindors?"

The old team nodded, everyone there was Gryffindor. James turned to the new players, "And are all you lot Seekers and Keepers? We're not looking for any other players, sorry." All of them nodded.

"Good, then let's get started. Keepers, over to Marlene here, the tall blonde one," Marlene waved at them, "She'll test your skills with Benjy Fenwick, the black haired one." Benjy waved them over to the hoops while James continued, "Sirius and me will take the Seekers, and Emmy you can organise the others while they wait, alright?" Everyone nodded.

Sirius and James herded the first few Seekers to the other end of the pitch while Emmy started to organise the remainder.

"Right, first years over there please." A few shuffled off, there never were many.

"Second, third and fourth years in front of me," she continued. More broke off from the group and huddled together in the September cold.

"And finally, fifth, sixth and seventh years here," Emmy pointed to her right. When everyone was finished doing that, she deprecated them into Keepers and Seekers. She was a Chaser, and so couldn't do much use in testing the new ones, and had only been on the team one year unlike James, who had been on the team since third head and knew how each position should play. She glanced over at Benjy and Marlene, who were having trouble with a second year who was crying because she got hit in the face with a Quaffle.

"Hey, come with me and we'll get you a drink okay?" Emmy said escorting her off the pitch so they could continue.

After that incident, the trials continued smoothly until they had whittled it down to one Keeper, Rue MacDougall, a small but quick fifth year, very Scottish and very fierce, and a new Seeker, a surprisingly good third year called Jacob Ladbury, who knew some moves that even James didn't. So with the new members ready, James called a quick practise to see how well the players worked together.

Sirius and Benjy flew up with their bats at the ready, while Marlene and Emmy circled around with Jacob and Rue taking up their positions. James quickly released the balls, and play commenced. The Chasers and Seeker were trying to score points, while the Keeper and beaters were practising defending. After about half an hour, and only 30 points scored, James nodded in approval, "OKAY WE'RE MIXING THINGS UP. ONE BEATER ATTACKING AND ONE DEFENDING. SIRIUS, ATTACK, BENJY, DEFEND!"

Sirius and Benjy nodded to say they understood and glared at each other. Now it was just Benjy and Rue stopping goals, and the other five trying to score. Marlene was soon passed the ball by James and sped up, trying to get around Jacob, who was getting in the way of play. Sirius, who was meant to be defending, was spending more time admiring the way Marlene's hair was defying every Muggle hair grip known to mankind to free itself from the bun, when he heard a sickening thud and the sound of six people crying out.

"MARLENE!" James shouted as he watched her start to plummet towards the floor 30ft below.

On reflection, it was a damn good thing Jacob had been in the way because he was close enough to swoop down at top speed and catch Marlene before she hit the floor. Ow her bun was completely ruined, but Sirius wasn't looking anymore, he was already fling over to see whether she was alright, like everyone else.

"Marlene! Are you okay? I'm really sorry, I didn't think it would hit you that hard!" Benjy apologised profusely.

She grinned, "At least we know we've got a good Beater, right?" He breathed a sigh of relief, while James turned to Jacob.

"Nice flying, mate, you did well."

Jacob flushed, "Glad I could help."

Jacob set Marlene down so she could collect herself, and they all landed after James called a time out. But Marlene wasn't timing out.

She stormed over to where Sirius was hovering, and poked him in the chest, knocking him off, "And where were you when I was being hit? Floating around daydreaming about your little fangirls?"

Emmy blushed but Marlene didn't notice, raging on, "In a match that could've been someone more important like Jacob and Rue, or James, so start paying attention you arrogant, narcissistic prick! You don't think about anyone but yourself! I bet even if Remus was in trouble you wouldn't help him." She was very satisfied to see Sirius wincing at her harsh tone but really, he deserved it!

"And if you hadn't been staring off into space, I wouldn't have fallen off. In a match that could cost us the game! Did you not listen to a word James said at the start?" Sirius recovered and retorted, "If I remember correctly, /you/ were the one falling asleep!"

James rolled his eyes at the pair.

"SHUT UP BLACK! That is not the point, and you know it! Honestly, you think ours so amazing, but you can't even play Quidditch - any old idiot can do that!"

Sirius snorted, "You do realise Lily dearest can't play Quidditch? Do you want me to tell her you think she's worse than an idiot?"

"Argh you are insufferable!" Marlene said, turning on her heel and storming off towards the changing rooms.

"Ummm... Practise over..." James said in the stunned silence that followed Marlene's departure. He helped Sirius up off the floor and drifted into the changing rooms.

Marlene and Emmy were getting changed back into their normal clothes and Marlene was ranting about Sirius, "I mean, what if I was higher up? I could've hurt myself even if someone had caught me! And he just waltzes down and APOLOGISES like I'd forgive him at a bat of his stupid eyelashes!" She laughed coldly, "He's a fucking idiot."

Emmy widened her eyes, "No, he's not that bad!"

"Why the sudden change of heart, Em? Have you become another fangirl that lawns over him every second of the day? Has he snogged you into believing him?" Marlene retorted, offended. The girls had all agreed that Sirius was irritating and that they would never date him if he was the last person left alive, so why was Emmy defending him?

Emmeline looked guilty and shuffled towards the door.

"Wait... He has, hasn't he? He's snogged you!" Marlene spat.

Emmy nodded reluctantly, "Yeahh... But Marlene, that doesn't change anything!"

"HA! Of course it does! You won't hear a word against him, you'll leave us to snog him and what for? A broken heart at the end of it! He'll leave you for someone new, someone better." There it was again, that feeling if abandonment. Her parents had left her too, still no word from them. They promised, Marlene told herself, they will write, but they still hadn't. So she was uncharacteristically harsh with Emmy, "Just go snog the man whore, don't mind me..."

Emmy muttered an apology and sidled out.

Marlene tore at her hair: that whole conversation had just left her even more frustrated than before, and close to tears as well. It seemed everyone was leaving her at the moment. Her parents weren't writing, nor was Mason, her younger brother Jake was ignoring her around school and now Emmy had chosen /Sirius Black/ over her. Any mention of someone not being there seemed to set her off at the moment, and she hated herself for being so weak. She sat down, her legs unable to hold her, her head in her hands and began to cry, the sobs wracking her body.


	6. Chapter Five - Discovery

**Hello again! Sorry for the wait on this, and I have had so many nice reviews, I love you all! xxx**

**I have some (hopefully) bad news: I have some massive drama planned for the next ten chapters or so, so there will probably be a massive wait for the next one as I want to get well ahead on the story before I post the next chapter. Just warnin' ya :P**

**- PIAM3 xxx**

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Chapter Six - Rendezvous in the Library

Lily was seated in the Library, piles of books around her, her eyes barely open with lack of sleep. The books towered over her, and she had been methodically working her way through them, the note from Flitwick saying she could use the Restricted Section next to her. There was a simple reason she was doing this: love. Not because she loved staying up till four in the morning, not because she loved hearing books scream at her when she opened them, but because of one sentence Professor Flitwick had said the lesson before. That one sentence had changed Lily's whole opinion on the war. They had been working on charms of protection, complicated charms that extended further than Protego, to the Fidelius Charm, and other spells similar. But at the end, he had added, "But there is some protective magic even more powerful. Love. No one is really sure how it works, but it has been extensively researched. It can be used to save people from harm, or protect a whole family if needs be." Lily had, immediately at the end of the lesson, asked for permission to research this branch of magic for herself.

So there she was, as she had been for about twelve hours so far, entranced by the writings of a particular author, the name she couldn't remember that was how long she had been reading for. They talked about how sacrificing yourself for someone you love gave the person a magical protection that was unbreakable. There were cases of Muggle mothers, not knowing how the magic worked, throwing themselves in front of Medieval witches who were bitter about the treatment of magical people, and the muggle children, because of their parents sacrifice, surviving the attack! Lily was in awe, to love someone that much that you would sacrifice yourself for them was a lot. Lily loved her parents and Petunia, she really did, but Petunia was their favourite and that knowledge had soured the relationship as soon as Lily had started Hogwarts. At the start, they were so proud, but later, when Tuny became jealous, their affection shifted to her, and Lily was left behind. So she honestly didn't think she would die for them. What about the girls, Marlene, Hestia, Mary and Emmy? Would she die for them? If the situation was right, Lily thought, and it might help them, I would. Out of the window, she saw James, Sirius and Peter running around, making sticks fly and attack each other. She couldn't help but feel jealous, they would all die in an instant for each other, and they were brothers in all but blood. They would gladly take punishment or pain if it meant the others didn't have to, and they tore up every time Remus was sick. It would be so nice to love and trust people that much, but she was too cynical for that.

She sighed and turned back to the book. Turning the dusty pages, she was soon engrossed in another element of love magic. After a few minutes, she felt a short tap on her shoulder.

"Hmm? Oh, hey Remus, how are you?"

He smiled down at the frazzled looking girl, "I'm good thanks but you look awful, what have you been doing?"

Lily frowned, "Reading. And not sleeping, which is probably why I look half dead." She flicked to another page and read down.

"And why aren't you sleeping?" Remus asked.

"Because I'm researching magic that is affected by love and it's really... interesting..." She stopped talking, her eyes widening as they flicked across the page.

"REMUS!" Lily yelped, grabbing his arm.

"What?!"

"Read that!" She pointed to a section headed 'Other Affected Spells'.

He read the passage out loud, "One spell widely known to be influenced by love or affection is the Patronus Charm; of course, thinking of the person you love could easily produce a strong Patronus. Another spell affected by love and affection, and there are more than people suspect, is Reducto. The blast of the spell is strongest on people you have no affinity to, or do not like. In which case, it follows that if a witch or wizard attempts to cast this spell on a person they have affection for, the result will not be as powerful, merely blowing them backwards rather than the normal explosion and and force." His brow furrowed, "You got so worked up about this? Most people know about Patronus'..."

She sighed, "Think back to Defense Against the Dark Arts, first day back. What spell did Sirius use on Marls?"

Remus widened his eyes slightly, "Reducto, but-"

Lily interrupted, "And did it work?"

"No but-"

"So he has affection for her!" Lily cried impatiently, hitting him on the arm with another large book, "Merlin Remus, you're supposed to he smart!"

He thought about what Lily was saying, furrowing his brow as he thought about it, "So, what you're saying is, the reason his spell didn't hurt Marlene was because he cares about her?"

Lily nodded furiously, "It's proof, PROOF! He MUST like her!"

Madame Pinch glared at Lily as she raised her voice, but Lily ploughed forwards, "He must like her, Remus, he must!"

"I agree, it's very possible, but Marlene hasn't even acknowledged his existence after the whole Quidditch trial fiasco. I'm not sure how this helps your whole 'get Marlene and Sirius together' plan..."

Lily flapped her hand, "No matter, she has to realise soon, it's just a matter of time!"

"What's just a matter of time?" James Potter said, sauntering in with his hands in his pockets, "Moony, Lilykins," he said, nodding to each of them in turn.

Lily sighed at him, but said, "Until Marlene realises she has to date Sirius..."

"Hate to break it to you, Evans, Sirius doesn't date, but I do if you want to go with me to Hogsmeade one time..."

Lily huffed and rolled her green eyes at him, "For the last time, no, Potter!"

He shrugged, "Moving on, do either of you know what's up with Marls recently? I mean, I know she's pissed at Sirius for the Quidditch thing, but she won't talk to Emmeline either, and has hardly spoken a word to me for four days!"

Lily nodded in agreement, "She's not really talked to us either, and runs off f we ask why." It was true. Marlene was become very introverted recently, worrying about her family, and keeping her anger at Emmy and Sirius going even if it was over the top (which it was). She hasn't wanted anyone to feel sorry for her and worry, but ironically by avoiding them they were even more concerned.

James sighed, "I just don't get it, why is she so moody? This isn't Marls at all!"

Remus frowned and sat down opposite Lily, "Prongs, mate, would your parents know what's going on? If Marlene's telling her parents, they might know too. They're good friends aren't they?"

"Yeah, Blood Traitor Buddies they call themselves," James joked.

"Blood Traitor Buddies? Why?" Lily asked.

"Both our families refused to help the Death Eaters, and with her parents as Aurors, it makes life hard."

Remus nudged his friend, "Get some parchment and write to your parents. See what they know."

James turned to look in his bag as Lily replied, "They did? That explains a lot actually."

Finding a half working quill at the bottom of his bag, James slouched on the seat and began to write, "Uhuhh, it means we have to be careful in Hogsmeade, we're a target. It also explains why Marlene is amazing at Defense, she has to be..."

Remus peered at the paper, "What should we write?"

Lily gazed through James as she thought. Who would know that about James Potter? He was never careful, but unless he wanted to die... Lily suddenly found herself upset at the thought of him dead. Not that she wanted anyone to die, but she didn't care about James Potter anymore than say, a random Hufflepuff fourth year. In fact, she hated him. Sort of.

"How about, 'Hey Mum and Dad, can you tell us what's up with Marlene, Love James'?" James suggested jokingly.

"How about no?" Lily said, snapping out of her daydream, "Start with something a little more formal, because we really don't have a right to know. Try 'Recently, we have noticed that Marlene isn't talking, and has been avoiding us for some unknown reason.',"

James scribbled it down.

"Then you could put, 'We were wondering if you, being in correspondence with her parents, might have an idea or knowledge of the reasons behind her behaviour'..."

James liked at Lily with awe, "Evans, you are a genius you know that, right?"

She blushed and continued, "Thanks. Finish with our names, all thee of us, and no PS or anything, it's formal."

Remus nodded, "That sounds good, now send it, James, we might get a reply by tomorrow of you hurry."

James grinned and ran out if the Library towards the Owlery.

"We'll know soon," Lily said with a satisfied smile, trying to tame her hair as she turned back to her books.l

Remus groaned, "How long are you planning o. Staying here reading, Lily?!"

"As long as it takes," she said through gritted teeth.

"To do what?"

"To protect my family. Think about it Remus, more Muggles and Muggleborns are being killed everyday, along with their friends and lovers. Anyone associated with me is in danger. I /have/ to keep my family safe... I can't... I can't let them /die/!" she choked out.

"They'll be fine, promise."

"No! You can't promise! Nowhere is safe, not even Hogsmeade!"

"Of course Hogsmeade is safe!"

Lily tore at her hair, "Did you not hear what Potter said? He has to watch himself for Death Eater attack there, it's not safe."

"Lily... I'm sorry..."

She sighed and leant back, exhausted, "It's okay, Remus, it's not your fault."

He smiled at her sadly and walked out, cursing Voldemort and the Death Eaters for targeting people like Lily, who were the very best people, and who didn't deserve to die at all.

* * *

**Hey, just a quick note to say that if you see any grammar errors/typos (and there will be plenty) just leave a little review of PM me saying where it is, and I'll try and get round to sorting it out.**


	7. Chapter Six - All is Revealed

**Chapter Six - All Is Revealed**

Marlene was in the Owlery, thinking. She never had much time to herself anymore, what with helping Lily search through never ending piles of books for random spells as well as the piles of homework that teachers were forcing on them. More than once already she had been awake until the early hours of the morning finishing important essays for lessons that day and she was shattered.

Along with the school responsibilities, she had already had a few Quidditch practises, and was constantly worrying about her parents. She hadn't wanted to say anything to Jacob, in case he hadn't realised anything was wrong; it wasn't fair to make him worry as well, one person scared was enough in her opinion.

Curling up in the corner of the room, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to doze off. Merlin knows she hadn't been sleeping well recently, and no one knew she was up here. It wasn't somewhere she normally came, but then again it wasn't somewhere anyone normally came unless it was to post something. And even if someone did come up here, they wouldn't see her because she was tucked around behind a column, letting her sleep in peace.

Then, just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard clattering footsteps on the staircase, and voices echoing up to where she was.

"Do you think they'll have replied yet?"

"I dunno mate, if they'd replied it probably would've come with the morning post, but Achilles could've just been delayed..."

Achilles was James' parents owl, but James didn't really write to his parents that much, and he definitely wouldn't be waiting eagerly for a letter from them; they were too often letters scolding his for James to look forward to them. Marlene sat up a little straighter, and cocked her head, listening in on the conversation. It sounded like Remus was with him, which didn't surprise Marlene - the Marauders were inseparable, even during the holidays it was rare to find James by himself.

"HEY! MOONY THEY HAVE WRITTEN BACK!" James called, peering over the stair rail to Remus, who hadn't raced up the stairs like an excitable child to keep up with James.

"Good," Remus wheezed, reaching the top step and bending over to catch his breath, "But next time, don't run up three flights of stairs. Even being a freakishly strong monster has it's limitations, y'know."

"Oh shush Moony, stop whining and let's see what it says. For Marls' sake I hope it's not bad..."

And their voices faded as they headed back down the stairs and off to dinner, Marlene brought her knees up to her chest and frowned. What did they mean, for her sake? What would they be writing to Mr and Mrs Potter for that could affect her? Nothing that she could think of. and what did Remus mean by 'freakishly strong monster'?

Shrugging it off, she headed down to dinner, her stomach rumbling.

James and Remus were already at dinner, but the letter was unopened in James' pocket. They had been planning to find Lily and read it together, seeing as Lily had also signed her name on the original letter to James' parents, but had been caught by Sirius on the way back from the Owlery, and hadn't wanted to tell him what they'd done before they'd read it themselves.

Everyone was at the table when Marlene slipped onto the bench next to Lily.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late, I was just having a nap."

Lily frowned slightly, "No you weren't, because I was in the dorm just a second ago, and you were not there..."

Marlene smiled, sweating slightly. She didn't want the boys to know she had overheard their conversation; she meant to 'go spy' on them and discover what they had been so worried about. And she also wanted to know why they hadn't told her they were worried, James especially was always very honest and open about who and what he was concerned about. "No, I was sleeping by the Lake, actually, it was quite a nice day," she lied easily.

Lily didn't believe her, but let it slide.

The rest of dinner passed uneventfully, with Remus asking Lily if he would meet her in the Library afterwards for 'Prefect stuff'.

* * *

Lily walked into the Library with her arms folded. The way Remus had asked her to come to the Library hadn't sounded like a simple question, there was an edge to his voice. So when she came in, as soon as she had finished eating, she was suspicious.

"What am I here for Remus?" she said, moving to the corner of the Library then scowled, "Potter, what are you doing?"

James smirked, "I have some information you might want, so insulting me and storming off will deny you of that..."

She rolled her eyes and sat next to Remus, opposite James which was probably a mistake. He grinned at her and she scowled even more.

"Just tell me, Potter, before I kill you violently."

Remus sighed and acciod the letter from James' pocket, "We got a reply from Mr and Mrs Potter..."

"YOU DID?!"

Madam Pince glared at Lily, but she didn't see, "What does it say?"

"We haven't opened it yet, we were waiting for you," James admitted.

Lily smiled at that, in some ways - and these ways were few and far between - James was charming. Not that she was ever going to say that out loud. Ever.

Remus ripped the envelope open and smoothed the letter out, scanning it before he read it out loud.

"Dear James, Remus and Lily (James is that the girl you're always going on about?)," James and Lily both blushed and avoided each others' gaze, "We weren't sure ourselves if anything was going on, but if Anna and Daniel haven't written to Marlene, and Mason hasn't been in contact either, you should suspect the worst. James, as you know, your father has a desk job in the Auror department, and they have sent quite a few Aurors out to search for them. We're afraid to tell you that they missed their call in with the Department, and everyone is starting to worry.

Your father is advising you not to tell Marlene as it might affect her school work, and it should be us telling her not you, James, as we've said we'll look after them all if the worst comes to the worst, so don't get any ideas.

Love as always, Mother x"

As Remus finished speaking, Lily looked down, and licked her lips, "So basically her parents are missing and suspected dead?"

James nodded glumly, while Lily squeezed her eyes shut, hiding a tear. The news gave the war a new reality: before the deaths had been people they didn't know, people who were unconnected, but this was different. If it was true, and Marlene's parents and oldest brother were dead, then the war was really here, and here to stay. It would leave Marlene an orphan, with one sibling down too. Remus smiled sympathetically at Lily, and patted her hand which was on the table next to the letter.

James' eyes widened, "Sirius needs to know."

"No he does not!" Lily protested, "/We/ asked, /we/ got a reply, but no one else should know, it's not our secret to share!"

"But Sirius is involved in this, we should all know and-"

"No, James, Lily is right, it isn't our secret, it's not our business to tell people."

James pouted, "He should know! Padfoot is notorious for setting people off and he should know so he can be sensitive..."

Remus snorted, "He can't be sensitive. We're talking about the same person here right?"

Lily stood up, "I'm going. I need to think about this."

Remus smiled, "Okay Lils, see you around. I'll keep this safe, yeah?"

"Yeah, thanks Remus." Lily smiled at him sadly and left the Library, thoughts swirling.

"How come you get to call her by anything other than Lily or Evans?" James whined.

Remus grinned, "Because I'm not an arrogant stuck up idiot who thinks asking her out every second will make her say yes?" he suggested.

"Oi, I resent that."

"Resent it all you like, that's the truth," Remus stated.

* * *

Throughout this exchange, Sirius had been in the Common Room playing Exploding Snap with Peter, a tad annoyed that he wasn't allowed to know what James had in his pocket, but a bit relieved that he didn't have to go into the Library and ruin his reputation. Currently however, he was more annoyed that he was losing to Peter - since when did /Wormtail/ become so good at games? Sirius always used to beat him. Then, another small explosion and Sirius lost the game. With a small growl, he leaned back and threw his cards down on the table, "You win Wormtail, well done."

Peter, luckily, didn't hear the irritation in Sirius' voice, and he too leaned back, but grinning in glee. So when James walked in, looking around for Sirius, he knew he was going to have to be extremely tactful when telling Sirius about this new development.

"Umm, Padfoot? Can you follow me a second?" James said nervously, feeling extremely bad for going behind Remus and Lily's backs but in his mind this was right therefore he would do it, no matter what people told him otherwise, that was just James.

Sirius grunted in acknowledgement and got up from the sofa, following James up to their dorm and shutting the door behind him with a thud, "What is it, Prongs?" he said snappily.

"Hey, if you're gonna be like this, I shan't tell you. You need to be sensible about this, mate," James said calmly, having dealt with Sirius in a mood many, many times before.

"What is it then?"

Swallowing his guilt, James started, "Well... Y'know how Marls has been rather... easily upset... recently?" Sirius nodded, "Well, we just found out that her parents have... gone missing, and are suspected dead."

"WHAT?"

"Padfoot, mate, this is why we're-"

"You weren't going to tell me, were you?"

"I wanted to! I'm not meant to be telling you now, I'm not meant to tell you!" James protested, "I shouldn't be here and you're acting like a child!"

"Fine! What good will this news do?"

"We didn't want you setting her off again, like at Quidditch, because it could make everything a hundred times worse, Pads," James said, wincing at what Sirius might respond with.

"So you're saying it's my fault?"

"No, but you can't deny it was you who set her off at Quidditch practise, and she wouldn't talk to you for days afterwards. I'm telling you so you will be tactful, and so you don't mention anything about family that could remind her of the fact that her parents haven't written."

"Fine," he sighed, resentfully.

"And you can't say that I've told you... Evans and Moony both told me not to..."

"Okay, Prongs, whatever."

* * *

"HE _WHAT_?" Lily screamed, pacing the boys' dorm, making Remus jump at the volume of her shriek.

"As I walked in, I heard James telling Siri-"

"Yes, I heard you the first time!" she snapped, then her face softened, "I'm... I'm sorry Remus, it's not your fault Potter told him."

He smiled, used to Sirius' rages and knew they meant nothing and guessing the same went for Lily, "At least Sirius knows..."

She sighed, "Yeah, whatever, but excuse me while I murder his good for nothing arse. I'm sorry, Remus, you're going to be a Marauder down." She stomped down the stairs, her hair looking extremely fiery in the light of the early evening. Remus felt sorry for James, then remembered it was his own stupid fault, and felt a lot better.

"He's down by the Lake, Lily!" he called after her retreating back.

* * *

James was lying on his front by the lake, soaking up the last of the sun before the evening drew in, Sirius next to him sitting with his back against the tree using his wand to make spheres of water turn into little models of animals. He looked up when he heard the crunch of gravel coming towards their spot.

"Uh oh, Evans approaching, and she doesn't looked to pleased," Sirius commented, making his little doe model turn back to water from lack of concentration.

Understatement of the year, James thought as he looked up and gulped. Even in the dire (and if Lily looked like that, it was definitely dire) circumstances, he smiled a little at her hair, which was practically crackling with electricity by this point.

"JAMES HAROLD POTTER YOU ABSOLUTE MORON!" Lily screamed, kicking his leg feebly when she reached them, while noticing that Sirius' transfiguration was definitely O level NEWT.

"What? What have I done this time!?" he cried scrambling to his feet and shoving his glasses back on his nose.

"You. Told. Sirius. When we EXPLICITLY said NOT TO!" she said, turning back to James.

He gulped and ruffled his hair for something to do, "I... He needed to know!"

"NO. HE. DIDN'T!" Lily cried, waving her arms in exasperation, "Stop acting like you know what's best for everyone!"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "I am here you know... Okay. Not the time," he said when Lily glared at him.

"Lilypad, dearest, I never actually said I wouldn't tell him," James pointed out quite fairly.

Lily screamed slightly and turned away, "You arrogant, insufferable /git/, James Potter."

"Lils..."

"You have no right to call me anything but Lily: you're not my friend, certainly not a close friend!" And with that she stormed off towards the castle, fists clenched in an attempt not to hit James.

Storming away in a fit of rage did not do much for your sense of direction, and soon she found herself in a part of the castle she used to come to after a fight with James; the Dungeons. She would used to come here to talk to Severus about how annoying James was, and even now they were no longer friends her brain associated getting mad at James to coming down here. Only now Severus wouldn't help her, the Dungeons were the least safe place for a small Muggleborn girl to be. The walls seemed to close in on her, the smell of mould and damp overpowering now she had stopped running, the cold sending shivers down her back.

"Hello there, Mudblood, lost are we?" a voice sneered from the shadows.

She turned round to where it came from, gripping her wand in her pocket tightly, "Who's there?"

"That's none of your business, Mudblood," it sneered again, disarming her non-verbally, her wand flying off into the corner out of reach.

She shivered in the slimy coldness of the corridor and tried to recall the Muggle self defence she'd learned before she knew she was a witch but it was no use.

"JAMES! JAMES HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE!" she tried, deep down knowing no one could hear her, "HELP, PLEASE!" Lily screamed as she was knocked to the floor.

"Sectumsempra!

* * *

**A/N: So I'm really sorry this has taken so long to get up, and I could list reasons for it but you probably have heard them all before yada yada yada...**

**One thing, I owe so much to Nonna Nitto. Thank you so so much for your interest in my story, and this chapter wouldn't even be finished yet if it weren't for you, so I thank you! Hope you like the special mention!**

**For her lovely Review and PM, she got to ask one question about the story/other stories/ etc. which I answered via PMing. So, if you review, you get prizes remember that ;)**

**-PIAM3 :D**


	8. Chapter Seven - Lord Voldemort

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot, and the few OCs you see dotted around.**

**Hello there peeps! So I think this update is slightly quicker than usual, but I don't know for sure, but something i do know for sure is I AM MOTIVATED! YES, THIS MEANS CHAPTERS AND QUICK UPDATES! I'm off on me hols this week, so I should have another chapter ready for next weekend!**

**Totally not fishing: Reviews make my day, and even if its a criticism, I'll take it;)**

* * *

Chapter Seven - Lord Voldemort

Lily sobbed as she was kicked against the wall of the dark damp room, her red hair matted with blood and sweat, her attacker looming over her, wand outstretched.  
"Filthy mud blood, thought you could get away with dirtying the pure blood of true wizards?" the figure snarled.  
Lily didn't reply, already knowing that answering back only bought more pain, not relief. Instead she flinched back as the boot lashed out and caught her under her ribs.  
"Little bitch," Another one laughed, "I thought you were a Gryffindor, why no reply?"  
The first man laughed cruelly, levelling is wand at Lily again, "This will teach you to corrupt the pure family's names."

And for the first time in her life, Lily felt the pain of the Cruciatus Curse.

* * *

The Gryffindor sixth year girls' dormitory had not seen so much as a smile for a day now, and it didn't look like that was going to change just yet: Mary and Emmeline were sitting on Mary's bed, sobbing softly, hugging each other to comfort the other one; Hestia, having been allowed in today with not even a protest from James, was pacing up and down, gesturing wildly, ranting furiously about 'slimy fucking snakes and there slimy fucking hands'; But Marlene was easily the most depressing figure despite the fact she was doing the least. She was lying face up on her bed, just holding a half finished bottle of Firewhisky in one hand as she stared unblinkingly at the maroon canopy of her four poster bed. She hadn't spoken once throughout Hestia's screaming fit, but it wasn't her silence that was the most unsettling thing, no, it was her eyes.

Marlene had gorgeous turquoise eyes that seemed more green in some lights, more blue in others, always changing like the sea, and they were the first thing anyone who could see commented on. But now they were flat, unmoving, a dull blue in the gloom of the dormitory and her face looked washed out without their usual brightness.

Hestia fell silent, breathing heavily as she finished, the only sound being Mary's muffled sobs and Emmeline's hiccuping ones. The door to their dorm banged open and James stormed in, and Marlene could hear Sirius's voice behind, grumbling under his breath as he followed James in. Remus ended his Wingardium Leviosa he had used to bypass the charms that kept boys out of the girls dorms and turned around at at Peter Pettigrew-esque squeal.  
"Wormy, remember to /fly/ up,"Remus sighed as Peter slid back down stairs.  
Normally Sirius would've laughed at Peter's misfortune, and it was a sign of his mood that he didn't for once. Remus lent against Lily's wardrobe, face deathly pale, a combination of worry for Lily and the approaching full moon. Serious was also pale, but looking more like he was suppressing anger than anything else, and Peter just looked as pinched as usual.

James however was a horrible mixture of furious and distraught. His Lily Flower has been taken, and he was not handling it very well at all. 's face was contorted with anger, and his fists were clenched.  
"How dare they! The little gits says she's got /dirty blood/ and that she's /below/ them but they're the ones who have taken her and are probably torturing her right this second," He shouted, his voice cracking as he reached the last few words, "And there is nothing we can fucking do!"  
"James, calm down," Remus sighed, tired of his shouting already, having heard this ever since McGonagall told the eight of them that morning that Lily was missing, And that Dumbledore had received a message from the Death Eaters saying they had her. Sirius however, stood there occasionally glancing over at Marlene who still hadn't moved.

"She has been like that all day, hasn't spoken once," Hestia muttered when she caught Sirius looking.  
"Why?"  
"No idea, but she hasn't responded to anything. The only thing she's done is drink that bottle of Firewhisky," Hestia said with a sigh.  
James frowned, his concern for Marlene overcoming his concern for Lily momentarily.  
"Marls?" James said cautiously, acutely aware that she hadn't even responded when they were clearly talking about her.  
Needless to say she didn't say anything, or even give acknowledgement that anyone was talking.  
"Marlene," He tried, louder.  
She didn't move.  
"Marlene Cecilia McKinnon," He shouted, "Do something please, you're scaring me!"  
But it was no good. For all they knew she could be asleep with her eyes open although that was unlikely.  
Remus gave James a look. "Let Sirius have a go," He said innocently. Innocence from a Marauder /wasn't/ innocence.  
Sirius looked around at Remus, "You want me to try? When Prongs couldn't get her to talk?"  
"Just try, Sirius."  
"Urgh fine!"  
"Marlene, can you hear me?"  
She blinked, but whether that was a reaction to Sirius's words or just the need to blink was impossible to tell.  
"I'm gonna assume you can, and just talk. James isn't the only one worried about you, y'know? The girls are scared shitless at the way your acting," Serious said, not really sure where he was going with this, "So please just say something, move, smile, cry even, scream, anything but don't just lie there..." He trailed off when she still did nothing.  
Emmeline, who had stopped crying in that time Sirius was talking, dried her red eyes and spoke up.  
"Marlene, at the moment I know I'm more worried about you than Lily. At least we know what she's going through that we have no idea what's wrong with you…"

As if something had clicked, Marlene blinked again and opened her mouth, "Stop trying to guilt trip me," she muttered.  
James threw his arms around Marlene as she spoke, muffling the end of the sentence, "Just don't make us worry about two of you, okay?"  
"Okay James, now can I sleep?"  
"Sure Marls, night."  
She buried her head in the pillow, closing her eyes tightly.  
The other girls, incredibly relieved, got ready for bed too, mumbling good night to each other despondently. They felt the loss of Lily even more in the silence, because at this time just the other night, Mary and Marlene were giggling over some story in the Prophet after 'Prefect Lily' had turned the lights out And she had gone total redhead on them, threatening to ban them from ever sleeping in the same room as her, and basically being the Lily they loved even if she was crazy. The silence filled the room as one by one of the girls – including Hestia who was sitting on a transfigured mattress in the corner – dropped off to sleep, leaving only Marlene awake, plagued by her thoughts.

* * *

Far away from the safety of Hogwarts, Lily was also awake, not that she had the chance of sleeping where she was, because her torture had lasted most of the day and came at a regular intervals; she never knew when the pain would start again, but there was always a point where the pain was so great she felt nothing, and it was that time she craved, the time she felt in control because they couldn't hurt her. And then they would stop, give her time to hurt, and start again.

But this time was different, because the pain stopped before it had begun. Lily risked a up at the Death Eater but he wasn't focused on her any more, he was focused on a deathly pale, thin, yet aristocratically handsome man. He was past his prime, definitely middle aged, but had the haughty pair of one who knew they were attractive, not dissimilar to how Sirius held himself. But despite never having seen this man before, she instantly knew who it was. Voldemort. Lily continued to stare, ironically less afraid of him at the moment than her attacker.  
"This is the girl?" Voldemort said quietly, but his voice rang with authority.  
The death eater nodded obediently and motioned towards Lily but Voldemort didn't move. Instead he drew his wand and stroked it.

"You know what happens to those who disappoint me, don't you Selwyn?"  
Selwyn looked around, surprised that Voldemort wasn't addressing Lily.  
"Y-yes my Lord, I-"  
"Crucio," Voldemort said, effectively cutting off whatever he had been about to say with the curse, his voice emotionless.

Lily watched in horror as Selwyn crashed to the ground and writhed in agony. When he stopped moving, Voldemort and continued.  
"Did I tell you to take the girl?"  
"No, m–Lord," The man winced, "You didn't."  
"Then why did you?"  
"I-"  
"Crucio."

Lily pressed herself against the wall, and hoping that he couldn't see her against that shadows. He did, of course, and turned his piercing gaze on her as Selwyn, who must have been the one torturing her, finished screaming.  
"Lily Evans," Sounding curiously like a snake, "What to do with you? I have no need to kill you, but no need to keep you alive. If I do kill you, there is one less mud blood to deal with later," he pondered, "So maybe I should just hinder you so that you will not be a problem in the future. Yes."  
"What do you mean?" Lily said, her voice trembling.  
"Wouldn't you like justice for what this pile of filth has done to you?" Voldedmort crooned pointing his wand to Selwyn's still form.  
"Yes…" She said warily, "If by Justice you mean a trial ending in his lifelong imprisonment in Azkaban."  
Voldemort laughed, seemingly amazed at her naïvety, throwing his head back as the laugh echoed around the concrete room they were in. Eventually, his loud laughter died down to chuckles and he fixed his gaze back to Lily.  
"No that's not quite what I mean, Lily Evans. Have you ever heard of the phrase' an eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth'?"  
He didn't give her a chance to reply, assuming because she was a muggle born she would've heard of the phrase.  
"He tortured you… You should be given the chance to torture him," He said, with perverse happiness.  
Lily gasped, and shook her head quickly, disgusted at his idea of justice.  
"No, I don't think that's what normal people call justice," She said, her chin sticking out defiantly.  
"You can and you will, Lily Evans, and I shall enjoy watching."  
"I shan't, you can't make me!"  
His eyes, which had before been relaxed, even complacent, hardened into anger, "You shall, because I have said so, and I am Lord Voldemort, and I always get what I want."  
He raised his wand to her and his expression to a malicious smile, "Imperio."

As the spell hit, Lily gasped, not from pain, but because the urge to pick her wand up from its spot on the floor and hurt the man who had hurt her was so great, and was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She heard his voice in her mind, encouraging her, urging her to give in to his will. Her fingers crept towards the handle of her wand And she squeezed her eyes shut, battling the command with every fibre of her being.

"No," She choked, "Please, this isn't me, please."

And somehow, saying that out loud helped. She had her wand in her hand now, and it was pointing towards Selwyn's unmoving body, the word on the tip of her tongue. But Lily was stronger now, and she knew this wasn't her, it wasn't what she wanted. Her hand shook with the strain of resisting the curse, And more it shock, the stronger she fought. Voldemort may still have been totally focused on the spell, but Lily wasn't any more. Her wand clattered to the floor and she stood perfectly still, breathing heavily, eyes locked on Voldemort. Voldemort's face contorted with anger, but he kept his voice calm.  
"Well done, mud blood, I am impressed, very impressed."  
Lily didn't reply, she just stood there shaking with anger, shock, cold and pain. She was proud, because ((DADA professor)) had already mentioned that while Avada Kedavra and Crucio were possible to fight off, Imperio and could be broken, but he/she did mention it was difficult.

"But you disobeyed me, and no one, not even you, disobeys Lord Voldemort."  
He raised his wand and narrows his eyes at Lily.  
"Crucio."  
Lily screamed, the sound of it coming through the room and along the corridor. It seemed even worse that before, but maybe that was just because she hadn't felt it in a while.  
"Crucio," he repeated, laughing as she screamed louder than ever, writhing in agony.

* * *

Marlene sat bolt upright, shaking with terror, the images of Lily bleeding still fresh in her mind, forcing her brain wide awake.

She whimpered and buried her head under her pillow, shaking as she heard scream after scream in her mind. Lily was being hurt, she was being half killed, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What would they do to Marlene and her family, when they were all known supporters of the Ministry and the Aurors, three of them even being Aurors themselves. What kind of torture would they have for people who crossed them? Another scream ripped through her thoughts, and she bit on her lip: why didn't it stop?

Then the viscous circle began again, and Marlene remembered that her parents and oldest brother still hadn't been in contact, and it had been a month now, a month of endless worry, no sleep and horrible nightmares. And now Lily was gone too.

But she was determined not to cry. Mason had always said crying was a sign of weakness, and that the 'Death Eaters' would only exploit your weaknesses. So she held back her tears and slowly drifted off into a fitful sleep as the dawn broke, and the sun began to rise.


	9. Chapter Eight - Rumour Has It

**So guys, don't kill me, I had the first half of this chapter all ready on my iPod, I was being so organised about it, planning a quick update, aaaaaaaand them my iPod broke and I lost all the stuff I'd written... Bummer. So sorry this took a while, I've got a lovely new iPod now never fear!**

**I do not own any of the characters or places that you recognise, they all belong to JK Rowling!**

* * *

Chapter Eight - Rumour Has It

After a week of no Lily Evans, rumours were around school in no time. There were rumours saying she'd died in a tragic accident, rumours saying she was being interrogated by the Ministry, and rumours saying she was a Muggle spy that had been caught, and it aw really ridiculous. But the one rumour that everyone had listened to was the one that said she had been taken by Death Eaters. Everyone knew the Slytherins had started it, but no one knew which ones, and the teachers were at a loss to deny all wild tales with 'she's visits family'. People /wanted/ something dramatic to happen, and they wanted to think it had just happened.

The only people who weren't keeping a close ear out for the latest story were the girls and the Marauder. Mary, Emmeline, Marlene and Hestia had not been seen upset in the slightest in public, as Dumbledore had asked them to keep it under wraps to stop the school panicking, but they were mobbed with people asking what had happened to Lily. She was well known as a Prefect, and popular with the first and second years, as well as unmissable in a crowd with her shock of red hair, and when she was gone, you noticed. But behind closed doors, the girls had been wrecks, crying all over the place, crying over homework, crying themselves to sleep. Except Marlene. Her train of not talking was continuing, and although she now made the odd comment and answered questions in class, she never voluntarily made a contribution to conversations with anyone, and none around her family and close friends. Her eyes were still cold, and she had lost her spark. It wasn't that Lily was her only best friend, for the girls were all close knit, but everyone was side there was something else that had made this extra bad for Marlene. James especially was worried, knowing Marlene never bottled her feelings up, she was always the one raging and screaming a lot with him whenever anything had happened.

So when he managed to wrangle a detention with Sirius, he was determined to get Sirius to talk to her about it. He wasn't sure why Sirius could do any better, but James was at a loss, and to be fair to him, Sirius had made her talk the week before when she had gone through her 'completely silent' phase.

The said detention was gotten when a group of Slytherins had walked past James and Sirius on their way to Charms, and had muttered something under their breath about mud bloods getting what they deserve, but it was clearly meant to reach the boys, who lashed out immediately by punching Mulcibers squeal rely round the jaw. Wands never got involved, but a lot of bruises covered the six boys when McGonagall had stormed up and dragged them apart. Sirius had started to explain, but was cut off.

"I don't want to know, Mr Black," she said sharply.

"But Professor," James pleaded, "They started it!" This wasn't strictly true, /Sirius/ had thrown the first punch, but he wasn't going to question it.

McGonagall looked at his innocent expression with mistrust, "I don't believe you, Mr Potter. A week's worth of detention I think, and 10 pints from Gryffindor - each,"

Sirius and James had complained all the way to her classroom, where she confiscated their wands and pointed to buckets of soapy water and scrubbing brushes.

"You have two hours in which to completely clean the floor of this classroom, Black, Potter, after which I will return to see it has been done properly," McGonagall announced, locking the door and stalking off back to her office, face set. It wasn't that she didn't care about the boys, but she was overly harsh for a reason: if word got out that Names and Sirius had reacted like that, it would suggest something bad /had/ happened to Lily, and Dumbledore didn't want that spread around.

Sirius complained bitterly until her footsteps had long gone, then turned to James, "Nothing like a good fight to break the boredom, hey?"

"Yes, moron, but now we have all this cleaning to do..."

"No /we/ don't," Sirius grinned, checking the door again to see if anyone was around,

James scowled, grabbing a scrubbing brush, "What the hell do you mean, Pads?"

"I mean," he said slowly, "I have my wand! Did you honestly think I would let old Minnie take my wand? Merlin Prongs, seven years of prancing and you don't carry a fake wand?'l

James' bruised face split into a grin and he shook his head at Sirius, chuckling under his breath.

"Padfoot, mate, you are an evil genius."

He smirked, "I do my best. Now, scourgify!"

The floor was spotless in no time, and James acciod a pack of exploding snap cards through the window and they sat at their usual desk for Transfiguration at the back, playing. Once James was two games up on Sirius' one, he leant back on the chair and looked at his best friend.

"Pads, mate."

"Hmm yeah?"

"Got a favour."

"Oh really? And why should I do this favour for you?" Sirius laughed.

"Because it's a nice thing to do, maybe," James retorted, "Come on, you don't even know what it is!"

"If it's to get you on a date with Evans, it won't work."

"NO. That's not it, Sirius, be... For fuck's sake if you make the joke I'll kill you... Be serious," James snapped, the tension of the past week returning now they'd stopped messing around.

Sirius wanted to laugh, but James' scowl made him think twice, and he sighed. "What is it then?"

"Talk to Marlene for me?" he asked, looking at Siris carefully for any flicker in his eyes. In the true Marauder fashion of not keeping secrets - unless it was necessary - Remus had explained what him and Lily had discovered about their first DADA lesson, and why Sirius couldn't hex Marlene. He watched his friend's face carefully, but Sirius either didn't show any emotion or James missed it.

"Why? She's as responsive as a rock if you bring Lily up," he said quite fairly.

James just looked annoyed.

"Padfoot, please! You got her to talk last time, the worth a try isn't it?" he pleaded.

Sirius sighed deeply, more deeply that he needed to, seeing as he wasn't as annoyed about it as he was making out.

"I guess I could try," he said slowly, avoiding James' gaze, "You're talking to her first. She doesn't like me."

James rolled his eyes, "Course she does, Pads, she really likes you."

Sirius tried to hide his grin although he dorm know why he was so happy about that, because he didn't care if people liked him or not, excluding the Marauders. Definitely didn't care about McKinnon, nope.

They gave innocent looks to McGonagall at the end of the two hours, who was extremely suspicious of them, but the room was spotless, so she handed back their wands, warning them that if they fought again there would be much more serious consequences, and they nodded in the rich place and scarpered back to the Common Room, talking non stop about their next prank, and laughing the whole time. James said the password to the Fat Lady (Bumblebee) and pushed open the door to reveal a half full Common Room. Sirius nudged him, and pointed to the girls, who were talking quietly by the fire, and Marlene in an armchair set back, reading a heavy looking textbook. Sirius gave him an encouraging grin, and pushed James over to Marlene.

"Marls," James said, tapping the top of her book to get her attention.

She looked up and would normally have raised an eyebrow, hating it when people interrupted her reading, and it was a sign of her mood that she didn't make a comment. When he and her attention, James continued.

"Are you okay?" he asked warily, not liking the angry angle of her eyebrows. Marlene was his little sister in all but blood, and yet even he didn't know what as wrong with her at the moment, and was tiring of explaining that 'yes, they were close, no he didn't know what the matter was any more than anyone else'.

"Yes, James, I'm fine," Marlene said sharply, "I'm reading."

He sighed, "Not right this second, just, y'know, overall."

"Yes James, overall I'm good, I got an A on my last essay for NEWT level, you?"

"E, but that's not the point," James replied, trying to keep them on subject. Marlene knew him well enough to know that changing the subject was always the best tactic. Perhaps they knew each other a little /too/ well…

"The point is, you're not yourself. Ever since Lily was taken, you've been quiet and mopey, and - and /introverted/. And that's something you never are!" James said, starting to worry again.

Hey eyebrows were so high, you couldn't see them under her half fringe, "Maybe this is helping me."

James scowled, "How is pretending nothing's wrong helping you at all? I know you, Marls, you rage and shout and scream, you don't hide away any deny it all."

She pushed herself out of the armchair, her text book dropping to the floor with a thud, and pushed her hair out of her eyes, gaze locked on James.

"Just what are you trying to say?" Marlene asked angrily, voice getting louder and louder.

There wasn't many people in the Common Room now, but the people who were there were all watching the argument 'subtly' from behind books or by glancing over constantly. Sirius was rolling his eyes at James' tact - although he would never admit he would do just the same - and Mary and Emmeline were just a bit relieved that Marlene was doing something other than read for once. James took a step back as if her anger had physically pushed him back.

"I'm just saying that we've all cried, well Sirius hasn't but he never cries, and you always cry when stuff doesn't go your way; remember that time I cut your hair off to see how you would look with short hair and your mum couldn't grow it back straight away?" James tried to joke as Sirius snorted at the thought of Marlene with short hair. He stopped quite quickly when Marlene glared at him.

"That's entirely different, James, my best friend has been taken by Death Eaters and I am not crying? SO? I'm being brave, okay?" she said, not sounding brave, just defensive.

"Precisely!" James said eagerly, "Lily is your /best friend/, for Merlin's sake, and most people cry if someone they care about is being hurt!"

Marlene's blue eyes narrowed to slits, and she clenched her fists, "So you're saying the reason I'm not crying is because I don't care about Lily?"

"No! No! That's not what I'm trying to say," James gaped, aghast at the accusation, "You've got the wrong end of the -"

"Thanks so much James," she spat, turning on her heels and stalking out of the Common Room, wide eyes following her exit. James stared after her, jaw hanging open in shock. He blinked and sank onto the sofa behind him, as the Gryffindors began to whisper, checking they had heard what actually had happened to Lily Evans.

Mary shook her head, "Hoo shit, that went down well…"

Emmeline sighed, "She really got the wrong idea didn't she?"

Sirius just sat there silently, while James let out a deep sigh.

"I didn't mean it like that, Pads," James said quietly.

"I know, Prongs, but birds are crazy, just… just leave her to cool down."

Emmeline rolled her eyes at the 'bird' comment.

"Do we have feathers? Do we lay eggs" she said, a feminist at heart.

"Whatever, Vance," Sirius laughed before turning to James. "Do you have the Map?"

James passed it to him cautiously, "Don't make her worse, will you?"

Sirius laughed again, "She can't get much worse…"

"Yes she can," Mary butted in, but Sirius covered her mouth with his hand.

"Shut it, MacDonald, not helping."

Sirius took the Map from James and set off towards the Portrait Hole smiling, "It'll be fine, Prongs, I have a way with girls, remember?"

James snorted, "That's debate=able. And no broom closets, okay? Now shove off."

Sirius saluted James, clicking his heels and marching out, "YESSIR!"

Mary looked at Emmeline with suspicion written all across her face, the across to James.

"I'll bet you five galleons that they kiss before the evening is out," Emmeline said to Mary.

"Nah, Marls is in a mood, there's no chance," she retorted, "It's a deal."

* * *

After she had stormed out of the Gryffindor Common Room, Marlene ran a hand through her hair, tugging it free of knots before pushing off and running as far away as she could. She ran and ran and ran, not stopping until she panted for breath and she had to slow to a walk. She looked around, and realising that she had no idea where she was in the castle, she sat down to catch her breath, panic bubbling in the pit of her stomach. Lily had been alone in a corridor when she was taken, and Marlene had an unwanted suspicion that someone was following her.

She looked around in the gloom and saw a gap behind a tapestry of a group of witches at a dance. Dragging herself over to it, she slipped into the small alcove behind it and let it swing back, covering her completely. Exhausted, she focussed on her breathing to calm herself down, and wrapped her arms around her knees to stop herself from shivering against the cold stone wall of the corridor. Marlene leaned her head back and pulled her hair over her shoulder, combing it with her fingers, admiring how blonde it was at the moment. She wasn't particularly vain, no more than any other girl, she just loved being outside, watching her hair grow lighter and lighter the more time she spent outside, and she was always happiest in Summer. Once her breathing had returned to normal, she closed her eyes and sighed, kicking herself mentally for how she had treated James. He hadn't been suggesting anything like that at all, she knew that now: her main flaw was always over reacting, and she was always taking things the wrong way, or reading too much into things, or getting angry over nothing. She sighed again.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sirius had been opening up the Marauder's Map and scanning it for the little blonde figure of Marlene McKinnon. He had checked the Library, the Great Hall, the empty classrooms, even hesitantly looking at the Hospital Wing, but discovering her in none of those places, he began to comb through the corridors. Eventually, he spotted her in an alcove off the fourth floor corridor, near the Ravencalaw Tower, and folded up the parts of the Map he didn't need as he hurried along. It was nearing curfew, and while he didn't care about detentions, he knew if he was caught he wouldn't be allowed to find Marlene, so he kept an eye on the Map where he was located to avoid being caught.

Sirius wasted some time when he had to make a ten minute detour to avoid Mrs Norris who was prowling around nearby, and he scowled when the patrolling Prefects cut him off, forcing him to hide in an empty classroom while they passed by. While it had taken Marlene 15 minutes to run to her spot, it had taken Sirius nearer to 40 by the time he turned onto the fourth floor corridor where Marlene was hiding. Folding up the Map, he headed along the corridor, pulling open the broom cupboards, looking behind every painting and tapestry, unaware that Marlene was huddled behind the tapestry, scared shitless as the footsteps grew closer, thinking it was someone who would take her like they had taken Lily. As he stopped outside her hiding place, she let out an involuntary whimper, before clapping her hands over her mouth a second too late. Sirius threw back the tapestry, causing the witches to fall out of their seats and slide out of view, and he knelt down in front of her.

Never had she been so happy to see Sirius' handsome face, and she let out a breath she had been holding for a while. Sirius laughed at her relieved expression.

"Who did you think I was, some nasty Death Eater?" he teased.

Marlene promptly slapped his knee and shook her head, apparently incapable of speech. He squeezed in beside her, letting go of the fabric, plunging them both into darkness, only the edge of the tapestry letting light in, illuminating only a strip of Marlene's blonde hair and a line across Sirius' face where his eyes were. He licked his lips nervously.

"You… You know James didn't mean it like that?" he started.

Marlene nodded quickly, a little laugh escaping past her lips, and Sirius mailed at the sound.

"I just, it doesn't seem real, I don't want it to be real," she said, barely audible despite their closeness, "I'm not coping, James is right, but this with Lily, and with my… No…" he said, stopping the slow of words suddenly, looking down.

Sirius frowned slightly, "Your what?"

"Nothing," she sighed, "Nothing."

This wasn't Sirius' area of expertise at all, he was the one who led girls along, snogged them then left them. He didn't know how to deal with the shivering, upset girl next to him. But this wasn't any old girl, this was /Marlene/, so he had to try. He pulled his arm up from his side with difficulty in the tiny space and put it around Marlene's smaller shoulders, pulling her closer against him.

"Hey," he said nervously, biting the inside of his cheek and feeling very uncomfortable yet comfortable at the same time, "It'll be alright, whatever it is, I know it will."

Her turquoise eyes welled up at his optimistic words, and a single year ran her down her cheek, soaking into the material of his shirt. Then another one fell, then another, then another, and soon his shirt's shoulder was soaked with tears. For the first time, she allowed herself to cry, and Sirius' vaguely sweet attempts to comfort her only made her cry more, and she clung to him desperately.

"You're not supposed to be nice to me," she mumbled, head still resting in the crook of his neck.

He chuckled quietly, still feeling a little out of his depth, "I'm always nice to you."

Marlene giggled, a slightly hysterical giggle, but a giggle nonetheless, "No you're not, you're not nice to anyone except James, Remus and Peter."

She sat up, the beam of light widening slightly as she stretched her legs out, so her eyes and fringe were visible again, but her hand still rested on top of Sirius'.

"I resent that!" Sirius smiled, trying to ignore the fact that goosebumps had appeared where her hand was. He put it down to the chill in the corridor.

The corner of her mouth twitched in amusement and she wiped her eyes with her shirt sleeve.

"I bet you even secretly thought Snog Spin was nice," he teased, reminding himself of how much she didn't like him, and how much of a bad idea sitting here was. She giggled again, less hysterically.

"Nah it wasn't," Marlene insisted, shuffling around uncomfortably as she avoided Sirius' gaze.

"You sure about that?" he asked again, staring at her and wondering why she wouldn't meet his eye.

Marlene nodded, "Sure as sure can be."

"So I can't change your mind about that one?" Sirius asked, a trace of disappointment lingering in his tone he looked at her.

Her hair was sill knotted, despite her efforts, there were still tear tracks down her cheeks and the area around her eyes was red and blotchy, but although he had been looking at her for a while, Sirius didn't see that. He only saw her eyes, which had been flat for days now shining again, the redness of her skin only making them seem even more blue in contrast. He only saw her small smile at his joke, and the way her mouth twitched when he leaned a little closer. He only saw the blindingly obvious fact that he fancied her.

Marlene's breath hitched in her throat when she saw his close he was, and bit her lip lightly.

"You can't change my mind about that one, but you can always kiss me again," she whispered, finally making eye contact with him.

She didn't notice the way his steel grey eyes, the polar opposites of here, lightened when she said that, the curve of his lips when she laughed or the way he shivered when she touched him. She only saw he the tilt of his shoulders when he turned to kiss her. She only saw her hand on his and realised she hadn't moved it since he had found her. She only saw the fact that if he kissed her now, she wouldn't care in the slightest.

Then there was silence as Sirius pressed his lips against hers, and Marlene finally moved her other hand to wrap them both around his neck as she kissed him back.

* * *

_"Back beat, word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out,_

_I'm sure you've heard it all before but you've never really had a doubt,_

_I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do,_

_About you now."_

_Wonderwall - Oasis_

* * *

**So I thought I'd end on that little quote from Oasis there which I thought for the chapter very well.**

**A few things:**

**• Thank you you lovely reviewers because they make my day, keep going please!**

**• A special shout out to TheFeatheredQuill for her shout out to me;) and because Blackinnon ASDFGHJKL.**

**• Review? :3**

**- PIAM 3**


	10. Chapter Nine - Reasons

Chapter Nine - Reasons

So you asked for a quick update, eh, how about this!

Although this quick update is a one off, I'm currently working on another multi-chap Blackinnon/Jily but that shan't be put up until it's all finished. Once I've uploaded chapter ten, I'm going to go back and edit all the chapters, checking typos and grammar issues, and generally sorting it all out. So if you spot any mistakes in any chapters, leave a review or PM me saying where it is and I'll check it!

Anyway, hope you like the chapter!

(And Nonna Nitto, I can't give you either safe Lily or feisty Marlene in this chapter, but they will be back eventually! I have some feisty Marlene planned in the next chapter or two.)

-/

They hadn't mentioned the kiss at all, and barely looked at each other the next day, Marlene too embarrassed with her slip up, Sirius fantasising too much to speak to her. Of course, try hadn't done anything more than snog, and Sirius wasn't one to swoon over girls /at all/, but he couldn't get Marlene out of his head all day. If he was honest, the kiss wasn't anything special, Marlene wasn't as experienced as lots of other girls, but it still lingered in his thoughts, and he couldn't help but imagine what it might've been like if she'd been laughing not crying. But that wasn't allowed to happen, because he hadn't gotten so much as a glance from her, and while he assumed it was because she thought it was a mistake on her part, it was really because she was so embarrassed.

Sirius was attractive, no one could deny it, and charming, dangerously charming really, and he could have whoever he wanted if he put his mind to it, so why had he chosen her? The thought stayed in her mind, confusing everything even more for her. Marlene had thoroughly enjoyed the kiss, more so than any other; that wasn't the point, he hasn't spoken to her all day, not even a "Alright, McKinnon?" And it was hurting more than it should. After all, he was only cheering her up, right? The kiss didn't /mean/ anything big, just a way of stopping her crying, surely. Neither of them entertained the thoughts the had dwelled on last night, especially the ones that involved fancies, because in the harsh light of reality, they would destroy eachother: Sirius was never committed to anything, flitting from girl to girl, kissing another before he had dropped the last, and was never in a proper relationship. The only thing he stuck to was his friends, and he had this defensive mechanism so when he cared about someone, he either pushed them away to hide the emotion, or held them close and never let them go. Most of the time he chose the former.

At the moment, he was too confused to make a decision about what to do, because he had a stray thought in his head that he didn't like one bit. You fancy her, is whispered to him, admit it you do. And he was in no hurry to admit it, so he tried to do his best to get rid of the annoying voice, that sounded weirdly like Lily's, to the back of his mind and keep it there. Marlene knew she didn't fancy him, after all, he was a git to her most of the time and gave her no reason to like him, but she did admit she wanted to kiss him again. She had always thought the stories were just that - stories - but he had proven that they were all perfectly true, and the girls who claimed he was the best snog in Hogwarts probably weren't exaggerating. But Marlene was not going to be one of his play things, and she steeled herself against the rather large part of her that wanted to go and kiss him again right now.

Right now was in the Common Room, in front of everyone including Emmeline, who she accused not too long ago of choosing Sirius over her, Mary who would tease her mercilessly, James who would probably kill Sirius if he tried anything and Remus, who would smile like he'd known all along, which he probably did, damn boy. So Marlene stayed where she was, working on homework while Mary sat on Remus' lap to do hers, which Remus (normally the stickler for 'sitting in a correct position') didn't seem too fussed over. With the while Lily problem, Mary didn't really want to leave the Tower much, because she was Muggleborn as well and although she wasn't that scared, she didn't feel the need to risk it. If the Slytherins had a vendetta against Muggleborns, Mary was not going out there alone until they were caught. Th others had agreed this was probably sensible.

Both Marlene had James had refrained from saying that they might never be caught, that the war was only getting worse out there and more and people were disappearing every week. James didn't want to say it because no one knew which family was next, and only those in league in with Voldemort were safe, so there was no point saying it: everyone knew they were in danger. Marlene didn't want to say anything because she did not want to be reminded that her family were in grave danger, with no word from them for a month and a half. She wanted to avoid that thought at all costs, even more than the thoughts about a certain Sirius Black.

Sirius however, despite /wanting/ to forget all about Marlene McKinnon, still had yet to tell James about Marlene crying. He reflected that it was odd that someone crying was a good sign, and it was almost humorous that James would smile about Marlene being so upset, but in the situation, crying /was/ a good sign: it meant she was coping with the loss of Lily rather than bottling it up. Sirius decided he'd tell James that night, when the girls weren't around and James would be sensible about it all. He flopped on his bed, already changed into his checked pyjamas, and waited for James to finish. James emerged from the bath room with his Gryffindor pyjamas on and his glasses in hand, ready to out on his bedside table. Remus and Peter were still downstairs, where Remus was helping Peter finish his Herbology assignment, so they had the dorm to themselves to talk.

Sirius started carefully, unwilling for James to find out that they had kissed, not particularly wanting to be killed tonight.

"Prongs..."

"Yeah?" James said, getting into bed.

"You know when I went after Marlene? Well..." Sirius said, trying to word it right.

"Well what?"

"I... Comforted her, well, my version of comforting, and she... Um... She cried a bit," he said, abandoning all hope of saying it properly and just muttered it.

"She did?" he said eagerly, "As in, a little cry or a big sobbing, wailing mess?"

Sirius smiled at that, "Oh definitely a sobbing wailing mess, I think she'd almost drowned us by the time she'd stopped!"

James nodded, pleased, "Thank Merlin, she needed it. And you /did/ comfort her?" It wasn't that he didn't trust Sirius, he just didn't trust Sirius to understand Marlene.

Sirius smirked slightly, and looked James in the eye, "Oh I comforted her alright, Prongs."

James was oblivious to the double meaning in his words, and just smiled, happy that Marlene was on the mend now. She wasn't going to get better while Lily was still gone, but she wouldn't get much worse at least.

James wasn't sure how he was keeping calm about Lily's absence actually, because although he wasn't dating her, he was never going to deny loving her, and each day without seeing her was like a stab in the chest. It physically hurt him to know she was in danger, and while Remus could sympathise with his involvement with Mary, it wasn't the same, not quite, because that was a more recent development whereas James had loved Lily for years now. And the fact that Mary was still safe in the castle. He didn't know what he would do if she died, he shuddered at the thought, and never got to kiss her just once.

After class, Marlene had retreated to the Library to escape from James' pleased looks at her and Sirius' broody glares, neither of which she understood, to try to finish her Care of Magical Creatures diagram of a Hippogriff. It was tedious work, especially when you worked alone, and Marlene felt her mind drifting off labelling a Hippogriff's wings and more toward the thoughts that were plaguing her nightmares. After an hour, she had only written two more labels, and hasn't finished drawing the head at all, and had been doodling on a scrap of parchment instead. Resting her head on the table, she allowed herself half an hour of sleep. After all, she said, trying to convince herself, she hadn't been sleeping well, and a nap couldn't hurt could it? She was asleep almost straight after she closed her eyes.

(IN ITALICS)

"You will tell me about them, and you will tell me now."

Mason winced as another cut was carved into his cheek, and Claudia McKinnon screamed in fear as his eyes flickered shut. The man turned to her next, ginning evilly.

"Poor, poor little blood traitor. You see what happens to those who disobey me, Mrs McKinnon, do you see? You may think Marlene is safe, but we have our methods, we can find her too," he crooned, "Want her to join you? We could have a... family reunion, with some /close friends/ present too."

His snake like gaze flickered to the bruised and unconscious red-head in the corner, and Mrs McKinnon shook her head, "Please, please, leave her alone, she's just a girl!"

"Oh really? What can you do to stop me?" Voldemort laughed. She had never seen Voldemort, and didn't know what he looked like, so the faceless figure was terrifying Marlene.

Claudia realised that she was helpless, and struggled against her magical bonds, trying desperately to defend Lily, who she was fond of, and her eldest son, who was slumped against the wall, looking far younger than 21 with his blonde hair scruffy and dusty.

Voldemort smiled cruelly, and raised his wand to Lily again, "Crucio."

Lily's emerald eyes opened wide as she screamed, and Mrs McKinnon joined in, and the green light flickered over her son and husband, who hadn't moved through out the session.

When Voldemort ended the spell, he gazed down at the four prisoners with no mercy in his dark eyes, and lowered his wand. Only Mrs McKinnon was awake now, and she shivered in fear and rage, "Please, have mercy, have mercy!"

A thin smirk spread across his pale features, and he twirled his wand in his fingers absentmindedly, "Mercy?"

"Yes! Please! Let us go!" she whimpered, crawling over to her husband and son with difficulty.

"I have no intention of letting you go, blood traitor," he sneered, laughing a her naive thought, "If you want mercy you can have it, but on my terms."

She nodded eagerly, "My son, please."

He laughed, "Your son first? Of course."

Then, although Claudia had expected the ropes to vanish, Voldemort didn't release Mason, but green light flickered around him, and his body slumped to the floor, dead.

He turned to Mr McKinnon and repeated his 'mercy' while Mrs McKinnon screamed, shaking violently, tears streaming down her face as he family were killed.

He turned to Lily, and coldly struck her down as well, before returning his gaze to Mrs McKinnon, "Mercy, Claudia, mercy."

Her screamed echoed through her head, and she screamed and screamed.

(NORMAL TEXT)

She sat bolt upright, her eyes wide open as her screams were muttered by shouts of fear and shock, and people gathered round her to see what was wrong.

Marlene heard screams, and wondered why they didn't stop, until she realised that she was the one making the sounds, and the next one died in her throat as she held herself tight. There were hands on her arms, shaking her, and voices muttering around her, soothing words she didn't hear. She pushed her chair back, grabbed her bag and fled, ignoring the calls after her, not that she could hear them as the sound of those two fatal words spinning round and round overtook everything. She knew it was a dream, they weren't dead, they couldn't be, but it was so real. Her mother would have begged for Mason's sake, and tried to protect Lily, her father would have tried to fight, but only have been hurt for his efforts, Mason would have been so angry when the Dark Lord threatened her, Lily would be the one who passed out first, and she could see the green light in her eyes, it was like she had been there.

She didn't know where she was going as she shook off the hands that grabbed her and she ran past, hair free and tangled, eyes red and tears still flowing down her cheeks.

"MARLENE!" James shouted, trying to grab her but she dodged his grip and ran on.

The girls stared after me, having not seen her lose control in a while now, and they were sure to be pleased later that she was coping, now they had only concern for their friend. All of them started after her, but James and Sirius, surprisingly, held them back, explaining she just needed to cry. Mary and Emmeline shared a look when Sirius explained to them that she had cried before, after he'd comforted her and they all noticed how his eyes didn't quite meet theirs, and Emmeline made a 'cha-ching' noise at Mary, waggling her eyebrows but there was a steely GOIG in her eyes, almost like annoyance, "I'm guessing you owe me five galleons, Mare."

Mary huffed, and rolled her eyes, "Shut it, Em, he hasn't said anything."

"What are you talking about, MacDonald?" Sirius frowned.

They giggled, giving Hestia a 'we'll explain later' look, and shook their heads, "Nothing, Sirius."

He narrowed his eyes, but Hestia jumped in, "Black, leave it, who said it had anything to do with you?"

Sirius seemed put off by her sharp remark, and glared at her before stalking off towards Gryffindor Tower.

James just shook his head at the girls antics, and headed to the Library with them, leaving Sirius to sulk. He knew Sirius well enough to know that he was probably going to go and pace the dorm, in a mood at people for no good reason. He wasn't normally this jumpy, but with Lily still not back, and Marlene so depressed, it was reflecting badly on Sirius. So he left his best friend be, having promised to help Emmeline with her homework while Hestia and Mary looked for books.

They moved slowly to the Library, concern for Marlene flooding back now Sirius had stormed off, and they discussed it in detail. They reached the Library soon after, and a fifth year Hugflepuff informed them about what had happened to Marlene, recognising them as her friends.

"Why did she start though?" Mary asked, frowning at the Hufflepuff.

The boy shrugged, "She'd been asleep and was gripping the table, and just woke up screaming! No idea why, sorry."

James thanked the boy and they gathered her stuff from him, putting it at their table and they tried to ignore the curious stares they were getting.

* * *

Marlene had retreated to her alcove again, her school bag in her lap, and she shook with fear and shock. The worst bit of the nightmare was knowing that it really could be happening right now, and she was powerless to stop it. She tugged at her hair, and buried her head into her hands. She knew her friends had been worried by her silence, but this was worse to her, all this screaming and crying and running off. They wanted her to cope, but cope by crying, and she didn't know how this was classed as coping. She was a mess, a crying, nervous wreck, and she hated it. If it had just been her parents missing, or just Lily, she might've managed, but it was the people she loved most all gone at once that had tipped the balance. Every day she was expecting the ivory envelope with the black seal she had learnt to fear from stories Mason told. That envelope meant death, it meant an auror had died, and every time the owls flew in she panicked, knowing soon there would be one for her as the oldest remaining child. She didn't know whether her parents were dead, and her little brother didn't even know they were missing yet (she'd told him all sorts of stories about how they said they couldn't write on the mission etc) and she was dreading explaining it all to him. On top of that, the days without Lily to keep her grounded were stretching out, and she was slowly drowning in fear.

She played with the strap of her satchel while she calmed down, and listened to the sound of the castle: you could hear owls all the time, no matter what, sending messages to teachers or pupils, or letters home; you could always hear the pupils unless it was last curfew, and you could always hear the wind, especially when you were higher up in the castle like she was now. She closed her eyes and blew out, trying to stop thinking for one minute, to just let herself relax.

It was impossible, especially when she heard footsteps outside. If Marlene had been thinking sensibly, she might've recognised the footsteps as Sirius' but in the state she was in, she just panicked and curled up, clutching her wand tightly, seeing the green light in her eyes as she shivered.

"Marlene?"

She whimpered and squealed, "GO AWAY!"

Sirius didn't go away, being the stubborn idiot he was, and pulled back the tapestry and sat next to her like he had done the previous night, "Hey, I'm not going anywhere."

"Please, please," she said, them realised she sounded like her mother begging for mercy, and scrambled as far away from him as possible, "Go away, leave me alone, Sirius."

"Nope, not a chance," he insisted, grabbing her wrist to stop her running off again.

She flinched at the contact and tugged, but his grip was too strong and she couldn't break free.

She didn't know why she was so scared of him, but it seemed that anyone she got close to was killed, and she didn't want the next dream to be Sirius dying in front of her, his usually sleek black hair all over the place, bright grey eyes a flat, dull, dead colour.

"Marlene," he hissed, "Talk to me, please,"

She shook her head furiously, and tried again to get away.

"Please, Marlene, you're scaring me," Sirius whispered, looking at her with wide eyes.

She didn't want to scare him, just wanted to get away, so Marlene turned to look at him, sinking dejectedly back down to the floor, legs tucked under her awkwardly.

"I-I..." she started.

He didn't know what part of him told him to do it, but he pulled her onto his lap, and wrapped his arms around her small frame, not being able to bear seeing her scared eyes and shivering limbs any longer.

She gasped, but held herself against him: he was so warm and she was so cold, so so cold. It was weird, being so close to him, but it felt... right, almost, like this was the only natural thing to do.

Sirius was still overcome by the feeling that this was what he needed to do, and was amazed she didn't flinch away from him. But she seemed to be slowly relaxing against him, and he rested his chin on the top of her head, inhaling deeply.

"Come on, Marlene, talk to me?"

She sniffled miserably, still refusing to talk.

"Marlene!" he said, starting to lose patience.

"No, I-I c-can't, Sirius, I'm s-sorry," she said, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes again.

She hated how weak she felt, she hated how weak she looked to Sirius, but most of all she hated how safe she felt in his arms.

He realised snapping at her wouldn't help her at all, and tried to relax again, "Please, Marls?"

The use of her nickname caught her off guard, and she looked up at him in shock.

"I... I guess I could..."

"Okay," he smiled, "You can trust me, promise. On Marauder honour."

Marlene giggled slightly and took a deep breath.

"I fell asleep, in the Library," she started, eyes glazing over as she remembered what she'd seen, "But I had a nightmare, I've been having them for weeks..."

Sirius frowned.

"And then I... I saw..." she choked, "It was my mum and dad. And Mason, and Lily..."

Marlene clutched at him a little tighter, squeezing her eyes shut, "And You-Know-Who -"

"Voldemort. His name is Voldemort," Sirius interrupted.

She nodded, "Voldemort... He was talking to my mum, about mercy and stuff. And she asked him to give mercy to Mase..."

Sirius didn't need to ask to know what kind of mercy Voldemort would mean. "He killed them," he said quietly.

"One by one," Marlene whispered.

"Oh Marlene," he sighed, "It sounds stupid to say, but, it's just a dream."

She pulled away quickly, eyes wide, "But what if it isn't? My parents haven't written all term, they weren't at the platform, Lily is no closer to being found, Sirius, what if they're all dead?!"

He tried to pull her back, "Marlene, I know they're not."

"NO YOU DON'T. Stop acting like you care about me, you don't, you don't, you DON'T! You don't know what it's like, the constant worry, the fear, the dread, the stupid, tiny hope!" she yelled, wrenching free and standing up, "You. Have. No. Idea."

He was stunned, having been expecting more crying, not her yelling at him. He shot up to standing, and took a step forward.

"I do know."

"How? You don't know, I know you don't," she sobbed hysterically, hitting his chest to get him to move out of the way. She needed to run, to hide somewhere the bad news couldn't reach her, somewhere the war didn't affect her.

"Marlene, I know because I can see what it does to you, to James, hell , to me! I care about Evans too, you know?" he explained, not letting her run.

Marlene looked up at him, snuffling, and the spark died again, her shoulders slumped. She returned to the weak Marlene again.

"I'm sorry, Sirius."

"I'm sorry too, Marlene."

And neither of them could say who started it, but they were kissing again, and as Sirius backed her up against the wall, kissing her hotly, Marlene knew she wouldn't run away. Sirius wouldn't let her run away unless he was running with her. She wrapped her arms around her neck, like she needed to be close to him, he made her feel safe, and her school bag lay forgotten on the floor, all thoughts of leaving long gone. She had always thought the rumours about Sirius were made up, fangirls who wanted to exaggerate spreading lies, but she had only kissed him once before, and only for a short time, and she knew now they were not lies. Sirius Black was every bit the kisser they claimed he was. So when he kissed away her tears and wiped her eyes, she allowed herself that feeling of warmth, the feeling that she never allowed herself anymore for fear of getting to close to someone, and she found that she didn't mind it was Sirius, that in fact she'd prefer it to be Sirius.

He had wanted to stop her crying the minute he saw her run past from the Library, and known in the back of his mind this would happen eventually. She was vulnerable, so very vulnerable, and scared, and tired, and hurt, looking like a little lost puppy with her big eyes and turned down mouth. And what do you do with a little lost puppy? You look after it. He knew he wanted to make her smile again, to see her eyes twinkle again - just to cheer her up in the slightest was an achievement to him. It didn't occur to him that he was taking advantage of her. After all, she wanted to kiss him too, that was obvious, so when she didn't protest, he immediately saw his chance. The draw was magnetic, both Sirius and Marlene knew that, but only Sirius realised it was dangerous. James, along with the girls, would kill him if he messed her around, and he might end up only making it worse, but right now he couldn't keep his thoughts in line long enough to stop.

* * *

They fell back to not talking, just like the day before, only this time, Sirius couldn't help but give her sneaky glances, which, luckily, no one saw. She looked more cheerful today, like telling someone about it had made it seem more like a dream, which was all it was, really. They all walked down to breakfast together, all chatter and laughter: even Marlene put in a comment or two on the day's lessons, and Sirius smiled as he watched her.

They sat at breakfast happily, everyone's mood improved because Marlene's was. For the first time that week, she wasn't picking at her food, and loaded it up high with toast and jam. She dug in happily, her appetite returning totally. Whatever Sirius said before they kissed had certainly comforted her, and some of her fears were gone. James was giving her suspicious glances, wondering why she had suddenly become so cheerful, but he wasn't about to complain. He gave Sirius a look, and shrugged, which Sirius returned with a grin.

Mary walked over, and sat down next to Marlene, after talking to Hestia at the Ravenclaw table. She smiled at Marlene and almost toppled off the bench when Marlene gave her a small smile in return. She stared round at the others, who shrugged, and Sirius, who smirked.

Remus looked up and grinned at the other Marauders, "Post's here."

They gave eachother mischievous smirks and Emmeline, rightly, looked worried.

"What are you planning, boys?" she fretted.

James sniggered, "Don't you worry, Emmeline dear."

"Oh but I do."

The others, in their worry over what the Marauders were planning, failed to notice the ivory envelope with the black seal that had been dropped in front of Marlene. She hadn't touched it, and was merely staring at it in horror. Her heart was shattering into a million pieces as it sat there, and she blinked furiously to stop the tears spilling over. This was another nightmare, she was sure of it. It couldn't be happening. It couldn't. Sirius had been so sure, he had promised they would be fine. Another person might've blamed Sirius for giving them false hope, but Marlene froze in her spot, mind blank except for one thought: they were dead. She grabbed the envelope and crumpled it up, as if that might stop the truth from reaching her, and fled the hall immediately. Her friends all turned their heads to her, all concerned, but there was nothing visibly wrong with her. Only Sirius noticed the crumpled paper in her hand, and had a gut wrenching hunch as to what it was. He didn't mention it to the others, hoping Marlene would tell them herself, or prove his suspicions wrong.

* * *

Everyone's emotions were completely fried when McGonagall came and informed them quietly on their way out of the Great Hall after breakfast that the Aurors had a location for Lily and were planning the rescue as they spoke, but that it might be another week yet before they could get her out safely. They all walked back to the Gryffindor Common Room in silence, hopeful smiles on their faces, just looking at eachother with a little light in their eyes, a little weight off their shoulders. Emmeline was happy, extremely happy, but there was a part of her angry. Marlene had run off for no reason whatsoever, and had worried Professor McGonagall, who had seemed concerned when they said Marlene had disappeared only minutes before. She was angry that it had taken so long for them to find her friend, and she was angry that they weren't getting Lily out /now/ and that they were waiting before breaking her out. She wasn't really angry at Marlene, but seeing as she couldn't find the Aurors to shout at, she had to resort to shouting at Marlene instead.

So when they reached the Common Room and saw Marlene curled up in a ball in front of the fire, they rushed over to tell her the good news. The opened letter was on the floor in front of her, and she was staring at the flames intently. James got in first.

"MARLENE! They know where Lily is, they're getting her out!" he yelled at her, putting his face in front of hers and grinning. She looked at him and smiled faintly, no sign of her pain visible. James seemed confused over her less than enthusiastic response.

Then Emmeline came over, and started to scold her, "Where /were/ you! You just ran off, we had no idea where you'd gone and -"

"Em, I'm really not in the mood," Marlene said tiredly, interrupting.

Emmeline huffed, and out her hands on the hips, "You're not in the mood for hearing that your best friend is still alive? What a good friend you are," she said sarcastically.

Marlene looked at Emmeline blankly. Her parents were dead, Mason was dead, what did it matter?

"Marlene! Are you listening?"

She wasn't, and she really didn't care. They were dead. She was the oldest McKinnon. She was an orphan. An /orphan/. Her brother was gone. Dead. What did Lily matter?

"Marls?" Mary whispered, "Marls what's wrong?"

She blinked and shrugged.

"Marlene, what's that?" James asked nervously, eyes on the crumpled letter.

She didn't really care what it was he was referring to, and stared at the fire still.

"MARLENE CECELIA MCKINNON LOOK AT ME!" Emmeline shouted, losing her temper.

Marlene turned her head, "What?"

"Where did you go! You had us a worried, McGonagall worried, you don't seem to care about Lily!"

She stood up slowly, letter in her clenched fist, and she thrust it at Emmeline angrily, all her resentment coming to the surface.

"Oh excuse me, Miss I'm-Always-Right, if I don't care about Lily, because I have a few more slightly more important things to think about right now," she snarled.

Emmeline laughed coldly, tossing her sleek black hair over one shoulder.

"Oh yeah? Like what," Emmeline sneered.

Marlene took a step forward, and Emmeline took one back, suddenly scared at the sight of Marlene's expression. Her eyes were wild but scared, and her long hair was twisted and knotted, her lips were red in the firelight. She narrowed her eyes at Emmeline and shook with rage.

"My parents are fucking dead, so if you don't mind, I'm not going to worry about what's happening to Lily," Marlene growled out, "Oh, and so's Mason."

They took a collective gasp, however James and Sirius seemed resigned to it. James had been corresponding with his parents about it, and had expected the worse; Sirius had caught a glimpse of the letter at the table earlier, and had guessed what it contained.

Emmeline was not always the nicest, and some people had even suggested she should've been sorted into Slytherin. She had a habit of finding out things she shouldn't know and using them against people. This was very useful if she was defending you, not so useful if she was against you.

"Liar!" she laughed, "You are a fat liar, Marlene McKinnon."

Both Marlene and Sirius snarled, although Sirius didn't know why he was so defensive over her.

"What. Did. You. Just. Say."

"You are a liar!" Emmeline repeated clearly.

Marlene's face tightened, "You are saying I would lie about my own family being /slaughtered/? Why would I do that?"

Emmeline smirked, "I don't know, but you haven't been totally honest with us this week, have you? There's been some sneaking around, hasn't there, Marlene dear."

She looked up, scared, "What do you mean?"

"I think Sirius should explain that, actually," Emmeline said triumphantly, folding her arms across her chest.

Marlene gulped and laughed weakly, "You know nothing."

James and Mary were so confused, Remus and Peter had already escaped the fight, and Sirius was glaring at Emmeline with such intensity, James was scared she might drop down dead.

The reaction was perfect, and Emmeline continued, "How many times have you snogged now? Two, three times? Oh sweetie, I'm not the slut anymore, you've kissed him more times than me."

If looks could kill, Emmeline would be dead twice over. James looked between Sirius and Marlene and knew it was true.

"Pads.."

"Prongs, it was -"

"I told you, you can't mess with her."

"I didn't!"

"Yes you did," Emmeline put in, "While she was vulnerable, am I correct? You used her, Sirius, like you used us all."

Marlene turned to Emmeline, and slapped her hard across the face, "Shut the fuck up! You don't know what you're saying."

Emmeline winced then recovered and just laughed at Marlene, "Needed his attention, so you made up a story about your parents? That's low."

She didn't know why she was being so bitchy, but she'd had a small crush on Sirius for a while, which she had convinced herself was more, and when she heard that Marlene and Sirius had kissed, she was out for blood.

Marlene growled and thrust the letter into Emmeline's hand again before walking off as calmly as she could. She was sick of being weak, and was going to make someone pay to this, for what they had done to her.

* * *

**Hello! Me again.**

**So there's another chapter done, and trust me there's some drama coming up!**

**I'm a bit worried that Emmeline's character is inconsistent, but she's definitely going to cause more trouble in the future, that's for sure! And what will everyone make of the news? Hmmmmm;)**

**Remember, reviews can take only a few seconds but can make my day. That's a good trade, right?**

**- PIAM3 xxx**


	11. Chapter Ten -Broken Promises and Revenge

**A/N: Hello! Thanks again to Nonna Nitto and apoorvam77 for reviewing, and I'd like to say again to you people peeking at my story: it doesn't hurt to leave a few words, and even if it's 'I don't like this fanfic at all' I'd really appreciate it! I don't want to seem pushy, but if you write stories yourself you'll know how much reviews do to help the story, and they inspire me to write!**

**Disclaimer: I don't know own any of the characters, places or ideas that you recognise fomr JK's work, I only own the OC's and the plot;)**

* * *

Chapter Ten - Broken Promises and Revenge

She had stormed upstairs and immediately locked herself in the bathroom adjacent to their dorm, bolting the door, using Collorputus /and/ sitting against the door. Marlene did not care that they were worrying about her, she couldn't stand to be in the same room as Emmeline or Sirius right now, and was still reeling over Emmeline's accusations.

They others were all screaming noisily at each other downstairs, and Marlene could hear the hurried footsteps of the younger students racing up the stairs to their dorms to escape the fight. Marlene curled up behind the door and sobbed, covering her ears as she heard Sirius' voice over the others. Luckily for her, they were a little too far away to hear their exact words. If she had been closer, she might've heard Emmeline's angry comments about Marlene being a slut, and she might've heard the loud slap when Mary hit Emmeline round the face. She didn't hear James' angry shouts at Sirius, and the ensuing fight and Mary screaming at them to stop, and she definitely didn't Siris confession.

"Sirius what the HELL?" James shouted once Marlene had left the Common Room, and Emmeline looked smug and Sirius struggled for an answer.

Mary turned to Emmeline, face cold, "Don't look so smug, Emmeline, you just accused her of lying about her parents' DEATH!"

Emmeline laughed, "It's probably true, Mary, stop defending her."

Sirius and James turned as one to Emmeline and their faces were dark.

"What. Did you just say?" Sirius snarled, and James looked about as murderous.

She didn't look quite so confident now. It hasn't ended in Sirius realising Marlene was a slut, it had ended in all her friends turning on her angrily.

"I... I... She's a liar!" she said determinedly.

"NO SHE FUCKING ISN'T," Sirius shouted, taking a step forward, but James held him back.

"Sirius stop it!" he said calmly, although he was just as angry at both Emmeline and Sirius.

Mary looked nervous, torn between her best friend, Emmeline, and Marlene, who was in the right here. What Emmeline had said was uncalled for, but she too was annoyed at Marlene for not telling them about her and Sirius'... relationship... Or whatever it was.

"NO! This /bitch/ said that Marlene was a fucking liar and that she was just attention seeking!" he snarled, not taking his eyes off Emmeline, who was decidedly scared. She had never seen this side of Sirius before.

"Padfoot, LEAVE it," James said sternly, "Because we need to find Marley."

Sirius wasn't any calmer, but held it in. He would rant at James later and probably punch a wall, but now he had been told the obvious, he knew it was true.

"Come one then!" he snapped, "Let's go!"

"Yes, Pads, gimme a sec. And can I just say, I'm still pissed that you're messing with her…" James said slowly, not wanting to say it but knowing he needed to. Sirius couldn't mess her around, not his sister.

"What?" Sirius snarled, turning back from the stairs to James.

"You can't mess her around," James repeated, more firmly. Maybe now hadn't been the best time to start this...

"I'm /not/!"

"You so are."

Emmeline looked on happily, while Mary stood by, desperately trying to stop it.

"How exactly am I messing her around?" Sirius asked throughout gritted teeth.

"For a start you've snogged her twice," Emmeline put in, but faltered and stopped when Mary grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the other side of the Common Room.

"You - keep out of this, don't you think you've done enough damage?'

Sirius glared after Emmeline, then turned to James, "SO? You've snogged girls more than once before, haven't you."

"Oh yeah, plenty of times, but /I was dating them/. Are you planning on dating Marls?"

Sirius had been about to say something, but James' question caught him off guard, "I… I…"

"I'm going to take that as a no, then. So stop playing with her, Sirius, she's fragile enough as it is!"

"You're saying I'm trying to make it /worse/?!"

James was normally able to understand where Sirius was coming from, Merlin, everyone knew they were practically brothers, but this time he knew Sirius was wrong. Sirius was wrong, and he couldn't see it. So James just shrugged, not wanting to provoke Sirius tonight when everyone emotions were frazzled. Sirius didn't take the silence as a good answer, and even if James had spoken if probably wouldn't have been positive. There was more Black in Sirius than he would admit, and although it wasn't necessarily his fault, he didn't do enough to contain it, and his face contorted with anger, "I would NEVER hurt her!"

"But you are, can't you see, Sirius? She doesn't want to be a play thing," James snapped, "Whatever you're doing isn't helping her.

So Sirius did what he always did in situations he couldn't talk himself out of, his reaction similar to that of a caged animal: he lashed out. His fist caught James on the jaw, and he stumbled backwards, pulling Sirius with him as he struggled for balance. They toppled to the floor whacking each other furiously, rolling around like mad men, landing hits wherever they could. Mary screamed and raced over, "STOP NOW!"

They didn't pay much attention, Sirius completely over reacting to it (like usual) and James never being one to run away from a fight.

Mary sighed, and despite being a tiny girl, she tried to drag Sirius off James, unsuccessfully, of course, but her intervention seemed to bring them to their senses. Sirius' arms were aching from James' punches, and James' nose was bleeding, and they glared at each other venomously. Emmeline seemed relieved that Mary stopped chewing her out over the incident, and folded her arms stubbornly.

"You are all ridiculous!" Mary huffed, the blonde looking rather intimidating despite her lack of physical strength, "How is you two sprawling on the floor hitting each other going to help Marlene in the slightest?"

James had the decency to look guilty, but Sirius, who was still insulted at James' last comment, ignored her.

"Sorry Mary," James sighed, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

Sirius grunted in reply.

She unfolded her arms to re-fold them the other way, and looked towards the stairs.

"Come on, we're sorting this out."

James stared at her, "Now?! She's going to be horrible to deal with!"

"James you absolute wuss," Mary scolded, "She needs us!"

Emmeline made a motion for the stairs, but Sirius stopped her, "You, /Vance/ are not going anywhere but here."

She winced at the use of her last name, but nodded, knowing she deserved this, and sat down on the sofa, legs tucked underneath her.

Mary waved at James and Sirius to follow her up the stairs, and they got out their wands to levitate each other up the stairs, Sirius' anger simmering down now Marlene had been mentioned, James knowing Sirius would be fine soon, his own disappearing as quickly as it had come.

* * *

Marlene was still in the bathroom, blocking out the sounds from downstairs as she wiped furiously at the tears streaming down her cheeks. Her eyes were puffy to the point where she couldn't see properly, and she was shaking with grief, loss and anger. As a fresh bout of tears started, she heard footsteps on the stairs, and familiar voices. She didn't want to listen to them apologising for Emmeline, as far as Marlene was concerned, that bitch could do what she liked. She was no friend of Marlene's if she was even thinking that. The door to their dorm opened quietly, and she recognised Mary's hushes and guessed Sirius and James weren't far behind. She didn't want to see them, she just wanted her parents back.

"Marlene?" Mary whispered timidly, looking around the room.

Marlene stayed quiet.

"Marls? Please!" James said, louder, peering under the beds, and heading towards the bathroom door, "Marlene!"

"McKinnon, I have a bruise on my face for you, you'd better talk," Sirius tried, completely untactful as usual, but for some reason she didn't want tact. She just wanted someone to scream at.

She let out a small sob, which they heard right away, and hurried over to the bathroom door, pushing on it with all their might.

"MARLENE!" Mary shouted, "Come OUT!"

Marlene shook her head, realised they couldn't see that, and croaked out a, "No. I'm not coming out."

Sirius growled quietly, "Marlene McKinnon, now."

She repeated herself, "No no no, I'm not coming out."

"Look, will you come out and stop crying please, Marley, for our sakes if nothing else," James said tenderly.

She sobbed again, then rubbed at her eyes angrily. She was tired of being weak and crying at everything. She blamed Sirius for that, he'd said it was alright to cry, he'd said she was allowed to. But it didn't help her at all, it made her worse: the more she cried, the more she wanted to curl into a little ball and cry until she ran out of tears. And that wasn't a good tactic in school. When she got home at Christmas she could crawl under her duvet and sob her heart out, if she would even be allowed home anymore, but now she had another month of school to face, and she was not weak. She was a Gryffindor, and Gryffindors were always brave. She dried her eyes on her jumper, and took a deep, shaky breath.

"Okay," she sighed, knowing they wouldn't leave her alone until she agreed, "Give me a minute," she added, looking at herself in the mirror and almost starting crying again.

They stepped back from the door, understanding completely. She grabbed her hairbrush and attempted to sort her hair out, but gave up and consequently just pulled it into a messy ponytail to keep it out of her face. She couldn't do much about her red eyes, but she re-did her makeup to mask some of it. Taking one more deep, oxygenising breath, she unlocked the door slowly, and pulled it open.

They were all in a sort of circle around the door, like they subconsciously thought she would try to run for it and needed restraining, but Marlene didn't want to run away, she wanted to shout and rage and hit people, especially two people. Unluckily for her, only one was in the room. Sirius had his arms crossed across his chest and was looking at her with a mixture of acceptance and annoyance, James' hair was even messir than usual the amount of times he had ran his hand through it nervously in the last few minutes, and Mary had her hands on her hips, looking rather intimidating for her 5'3 form. Marlene gulped when she saw their expressions: they didn't care that she was bing horrible, they didn't mind that she had run off, and they still cared about her. That was what mattered to her most, but she couldn't help but feel that if Lily was here it would be so much better. And she needed someone to blame for that, so she blamed the one person she knew the accusation would hurt, Sirius.

"What do you want?" Marlene sighed, rubbing her face to mask the redness of her eyes, but they all saw it anyway.

"We want to talk to you," Mary said softly.

"And make sure you're okay," James added, running his tigers through his hair again.

Sirius didn't say anything, just stared at her, expression now completely unreadable,

"W-well, what is there to s-say?" she gulped, "My p-parents are d-dead and there's noth-nothing you can do."

Her voice was angry but broken, but it strengthened a bit as she continued, "So why are you here? You can't help me, or promise it'll be alright like some people did, what's the use."

Mary looked up at her and her eyes were pleading, "No one's promising that, Marls, I wouldn't promise that."

"Nor would I," James commented, "Sirius?"

Sirius couldn't say it; he had promised it, just the other day, he'd told her that it would be alright, that her parents would be fine, Mason would be safe, he'd /promised/. And by Marlene's expression, she remembered too.

"Oh but Sirius did promise that, didn't you?" Marlene said coldly, after a few uncomfortable seconds of silence, "You promised me they'd be back safe."

James looked furious, because they were in the middle of a war. You shouldn't say anyone would be safe, because everyone was in danger.

"Padfoot, did you?"

He nodded miserably, and Mary hit his arm, "Idiot, Sirius, idiot."

"He promised, he said he knew they were safe!"

"It was to make you feel better!" Sirius protested, looking around wildly.

"So you lied to me?" she said, changing tact.

"Marlene, this is ridiculous!" he laughed, "I was trying to make you feel better!"

"Oh yeah, you did that brilliantly when you snogged her," James cut in sarcastically.

Mary sighed, "Don't you get involved, James..."

Sirius scowled at his best friend, "Don't make me punch you again."

"You /punched/ him?!" Marlene gasped, looking between James and Sirius in disbelief, "Why?!"

James gritted his teeth and said nothing more.

Marlene was getting angrier and angrier: Sirius did all this just to snog her? He was so fucking dead. /And/ he punched James, that was not on. Not at all.

"Sirius Black you /prick/," she snarled, turning to him with clenched fists.

"I'm the prick?! He was suggesting stuff that was not true!"

"Not true that you were using me? Not true that you kissed me when you knew I wouldn't protest?" Marlene said with disgust, her lip curling, "You make me sick, Sirius Black."

He knotted his eyebrows together, and opened his mouth to respond, but Marlene shut him up by slapping him round the face.

"Don't try and say anything to cover up, you did and you know it. You promised me things you shouldn't have, and lied to me, /used/ me while I was weak. I trusted you, and you lied to me," she spat, not feeling remotely sorry when his cheek was red with her hand print.

Mary stared in horror, and James started to feel guilty for bringing that back up again: he was sure Sirius hadn't tried to lie to her, but he himself hadn't been completely honest with Marlene either. Maybe James should've told her what he knew, rather than talking about her with his parents, he conceded, but he was not saying that now: he didn't particularly want to be slapped as well.

Marlene let out one more heart-wrenching sob and pushed Sirius away, "Leave me alone. I don't want you to talk to me, or to have anything to do with me."

"Marle-"

"No. Don't even try," she warned him.

"Please, it wasn't my fault this happened!"

Then a totally irrational thought popped into her head, but in her already confused state, she clung to it, and to the excuse. When people die, there's something to blame, a disease, old age, whatever. When they're killed by masked men that have no recorded name, there isn't. And most people /need/ someone to blame for a death. Marlene held onto the one person she wanted to hurt most, and blamed it on him.

"It was your fault, you and your family killed them," she snarled, pushing his shoulder, "It's. All. Your. Fault."

James widened his eyes so wide they looked about to pop out. You never ever compared Sirius to his family, EVER. His family was a no go area to start with, but saying he was like them? He wasn't sure what Sirius would do, but it wasn't going to be nice. Sirius was currently breathing very heavily, staring at Marlene in shock, and James was amazed he hadn't erupted yet.

"You don't mean that," he croaked, pleading.

Marlene had completely lost control of her emotions, and tossed her head back and laughed, "Yes I do. You told me they would be fine, and then your family murdered them. Tell me how that isn't your fault?"

"You little bi-"

"Sirius, no," James said sharply, but Marlene had already slapped him again, and was stalking out, tears threatening to fall again.

"MARLENE WAIT!" Mary cried, flustered, and ran after her friend, but the door to the dorm had been slammed in her face with an echoing finality.

They looked at each other dumfounded while Sirius closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try and calm down.

"She's lost it," James said, staring at a spot on the wall opposite, "She's totally lost it."

* * *

Marlene woke the next morning and washed and dressed without talking to either of her dorm mates, and Emmeline didn't even bother to make an effort, merely scowling after the blonde while Mary sent them both disapproving glares. Marlene didn't want to talk to anyone, so focused was she on hating Sirius, that she locked the bathroom door behind her straight away, and concentrated entirely on looking perfect. No one could know what he had done to her just yet, and he was going to pay for using her like that. He was going to regret messing with Marlene McKinnon. Very, very deep down, she knew he hadn't touched her parents, but she needed someone to pin her problems on, and Sirius was close at hand, so he would have to do. She fastened her hair in a sloppy bun to do her usual makeup, got dressed and redid her hair before she exited the bathroom and quickly grabbed her bag, and headed silently down to breakfast, not giving either Mary or Emmeline any recognition. She brushed past James, Remus, Sirius and Peter in the Common Room without so much as a nod, and Sirius looked after her miserably, while Remus shot him a sympathetic look, having been updated once James and Sirius had left Mary the previous evening.

She took a shaky breath before entering the Great Hall, and sat well away from any of her fellow sixth years on the Gryffindor table, ignoring the boys entirely when they joined her five minutes later. They tried to include her in their conversation, and the attempt became increasingly lame as she brushed them all off, and stared down at her plate of scrambled eggs instead. They eventually gave up, and resorted to giving worried looks at her and each other.

"I'm not really sure what's wrong," Peter said and Sirius sighed.

"Don't worry Wormy, it's complicated."

"Yeah, like the fact that Sirius was a dick to her and she over reacted," James put in, taking a bite out of his toast.

Remus sighed, "James, he wasn't /that/ bad, you know what I told you," and gave him a meaningful look.

James rolled his eyes, "That doesn't excuse it at all, Moony, and you know it."

"And you're saying you wouldn't do the same with Lily?"

James choked, "Irrelevant!"

Sirius and Peter looked lost as James and Remus openly discussed Sirius' apparent crush on Marlene in hearing of both parties.

"Would you mind explaining what the fuck you are talking about?" Sirius started, "I'm lo-"

He stopped when he saw Professor McGonagall approach Marlene with an odd expression resembling sympathy.

She coughed, and Marlene swung round on her seat, one eyebrow raised.

"Miss McKinnon, the school was informed of the letter you received, and we're sorry for your loss..."

Marlene nodded but didn't say anything.

"And I wish to talk to you about it, and arrangements for the Christmas Holidays - I believe you and your younger brother were planning on returning home?"

"Yes, but clearly that's not happening now," Marlene said disdainfully, turning back to her breakfast.

McGonagall's expression hardened, "Miss McKinnon, I am still talking to you."

She didn't respond, and James sighed, looking at Remus in exasperation.

"Miss McKinnon, the school believes you would be able to stay with your aunt over the holidays until you're 17, and arrangements can be made then."

Marlene laughed coldly, "If, you know, my aunt's not dead by then too."

"Miss McKinnon!" McGonagall scolded, "That's not the right attitude!"

"Ah well, it doesn't matter when we're all going to die soon," she shrugged, finishing her food, the cutlery clattering against the plate as she dropped it.

Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows, clearly unimpressed.

"I know this is a traumatic time, but I still expect some respect from pupils."

"Professor, with all due respect," she said, not sounding respectful at all, just hacked off, "But I don't really care."

And she stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder, and exited the Great Hall to incredulous expressions from McGonagall and sighs from the Marauders. She passed Mary and Emmeline on the way out, and as she brushed past heard a voice in her ear hiss, "Slut."

* * *

Mary cornered her after Defense Against the Dark Arts, where she'd been partnered with Sirius again much to her annoyance, and had proceeded to give him a black eye and a cut on his cheek in their duel.

"Marlene!" she gasped, racing to catch up with her friend.

Marlene looked back and stopped with a sigh, "What do you want Mary?"

"What the hell have you been doing today!?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mary gave her an incredulous look, "You've ignored me completely, and Emmeline, although that I can understand, but the boys as well? They haven't done anything but try to help you."

Marlene laughed, and looked Mary straight in the eye, "Sirius has done nothing but try to /piss me off/."

"No! You know that's not true," Mary pleaded, catching Marlene's wrist, but the taller girl shook her off and turned around again.

"I shan't listen to you if you're just going to defend him."

"Don't you think you're over reacting just slightly?" she tried again, catching up to Marlene again.

"No," Marlene said coolly, "No, I don't believe I am."

She stormed off, leaving Mary at a loss as to what to do. There was no way she could run and catch up with Marlene, not being particularly athletic, but even if she attempted to, she'd be late for Transfiguration. So she reluctantly headed off to Transfiguration, intending to tell McGonagall what Marlene had done now.

Before she'd reached the classroom, she bumped into the Marauders, all four of them discussing something closely.

"James!" she said, breathing a sigh of relief. James would know how to deal with it, he knew how Marlene's mind worked.

"Mary, where's Marlene?"

"I... I don't know... She walked off in the wrong direction," Mary said slowly.

Remus looked at James, "Check the Map."

James nodded, and took out the piece of parchment he always carried, unfolding it. Normally they would've hidden it from Mary, but none of them thought that particularly important at the time.

"What's that?" Mary asked, craning her neck to see, but with all four of them, even Peter the shortest, being taller than her, she couldn't see much.

"Don't worry, MacDonald," Sirius said absentmindedly, scanning the Map.

"There she is!" Peter squeaked, pointing to a figure near the dungeons, seemingly pacing outside the Slytherin Common Room.

"Someone needs to find her and-" James started, but didn't even finish his sentence as Sirius ran past towards the dungeons.

"Sirius, are you sure that's the best idea?" James called after him, but Sirius didn't stop.

"She's gone to find Regulus!" he said, "Isn't it obvious? Who else of my family is at the school? Who else can she hurt for what happened?"

James didn't know how Sirius had worked that out, but now he'd said it, it made perfect sense.

He groaned, "Fuck this, not Regulus... Come on, let's get to class, guys, Sirius has got this one."

Mary sent a glance after Sirius, but decided they might as well have a good scream at each other while they had the chance, "Come on then, McGonagall will be waiting..."

* * *

Marlene was leaning against the archway in front of the Slytherin Common Room, tapping her wand against her leg impatiently. She was waiting, as Sirius had predicted, for Regulus Black, and she was willing to wait all day for him if need be. She didn't know that the older Black sibling was working his way across the castle to her at the same time as the younger Black emerged from the dungeon Common Room and looked at her in shock and confusion.

Regulus knew of Marlene, of course he did, Bellatrix was always talking about how she wanted to kill the whole lot of them, but he didn't know she had succeeded, and he definitely didn't know why Marlene was here now. He was in the year below Marlene and Sirius, and had been the Black sibling that did everything right: he was sorted into Slytherin, showed an interest in joining the Death Eaters, supported the 'Purebloods are Better' view, as well as upholding the name of Black. Him and Sirius used to be pretty close, considering their differences, but once they were both at Hogwarts things began to change, and when Sirius left home, Regulus was left behind with no option but to accept the family ways. Even so, he had embraced their racist ways readily, and was already close to being a full Death Eater. He had, as Sirius always put it, 'gone to the dark side' and was no longer the innocent, loyal little boy Sirius had protected. Seeing Marlene (otherwise known as the blood traitor bitch at home) was probably not the best thing that had happened to him, and he gulped; Regulus didn't know why she was here, but her expression was a particularly nasty scowl, and she had her wand out.

"What do you want?" he sneered, hoping to scare her off.

It didn't work.

Marlene shrugged, "Revenge, I guess."

"Revenge?" Regulus inquired, raising a dark eyebrow so similar to Sirius'.

"Revenge," she confirmed, raising her wand, "Your family killed mine, I think I'm allowed to take you out."

Regulus laughed cruelly. Now he knew why she was here. "Poor little Gryffindor, how very /loyal/," he sneered, managing to make 'loyal' sound like an insult,

"Yeah, I am," Marlene retorted, not going to let him intimidate her, "So come on, get your wand out and prepare for a visit to the Hospital Wing."

"A little blood traitor bitch like you couldn't even give me a grazed knee," he sniffed, sticking his nose in the air, and starting to walk past.

Marlene totally lost it, and slammed him into the wall, wand digging into the gap under his jaw, making him squirm.

"Oh really?" she snarled, "Want to repeat that?"

"A little blood traitor bitch like you couldn't even give me a grazed knee," Regulus repeated calmly, fingering his wand in his trouser pocket that Marlene had forgotten to take off of him.

He cast a quick non-verbal Stinging Hex, and she recoiled, hissing, muttering counter jinxes quickly, before her eyes bored into his again.

"You're better than I thought you were," he remarked, "But not quite good enough."

She looked at him in confusion, which was what he'd been hoping, and he shot another spell at her while she was distracted.

Marlene dived out of the way and turned around to send a Stunning Spell his way, but he'd moved already and was the other side of the corridor, the red beam of light shattering and refracting off the stone wall.

He laughed, a cruel laugh, and his wand sent a jet of green light towards her at incredible speed, and she missed the Crucio by the fabric of her blouse, shrieking as she came so close to being hit.

"Maybe that's what happened to your darling family," he mused, keeping his eyes on her, "It's quite likely it lasted for days."

Marlene glared at him, sending a fling of different hexes at bind which he just managed to keep off with his shield charm, but the next hex she sent meant it flickered and died.

"Oh dear, has losing Mummy and Daddy got you angry?" he cooed, imitating his cousin Bellatrix's voice.

She growled and dropped her wand, leaping on him. She might not be able to out-duel the fifth year, but she was sure she could out-punch him. She hit his chest repeatedly, extremely satisfied with the groans of pain that Regulus let out, but he still had his wand, and for the second time he caught her with a spell. The Unforgivable was a lapse in judgment, to get expelled would mean the end of his chances to become a Death Eater: Voldemort only took those smart enough to make it to graduation, and Regulus desperately wanted to join him as soon as possible.

She was blasted backwards, and she had braced herself for impact against a wall, she felt herself caught by strong arms that pulled her upright. Marlene struggled against them, but Sirius turned her around and checked her over quickly, and she breathed out.

"Black, go away."

"No, now get behind me."

"Why do I- OI!" she yelled as he pushed her behind his back and stepped forward towards Regulus, who was picking himself off the ground, rubbing his chest and wincing.

"Ahh, big brother," Regulus jeered, his calm façade back in place.

"Regulus," Sirius said stiffly, "What the hell was that?"

"Your girlfriend here jumped on me," he said, looking extremely dignified for someone who had just been in a duel and a fist fight.

Marlene stepped forward, mouth curled down in anger, but Sirius out his arm out and stopped her, "Ah, I wish, but you didn't answer me."

"I think I did," he laughed, "She jumped on me."

Sirius sighed. His brother always made him impatient. "I know, I am fully aware of that, but why did you try to hex her?"

"Because. She. Jumped. On. Me."

"Oh no, I'm not talking about just then," Sirius said coldly, disgusted with Regulus, "I mean the Unforgivable you tried to use, what was it, Crucio? Avada Kedavra?"

Regulus sneered, "Crucio, but the bitch deserved it."

Marlene stepped forward again, and again Sirius stopped her.

"I'm not reporting that tonight, for Marlene's sake, but you'd better leave now before I let her kill you," Sirius stated simply, and Marlene grinned in appreciation.

Regulus gave one look at the manic expression on Marlene's face and scuttled off, only stopping to scoop up his wand from where Sirius had kicked it.

Marlene pushed away from Sirius as soon as Regulus had turned the corner, and scowled at him, "What the /hell/ was that about? Why are you keeping tabs on me? And why did you say 'I wish'?"

Sirius sighed. Here we go, he thought. "Mary told us you'd gone off before Transfiguration, and we worked out where you'd gone. As for what that was, that was me saving your ass."

He hoped she wouldn't ask about the 'I wish' again, because he didn't have an answer for that.

She sniffed, "I didn't need /saving/, I was doing fine."

"He tried an Unforgivable!" Sirius shouted, glaring at her.

"And I hit him back," Marlene tried to reason.

"I don't want you around Regulus," he muttered, "He's bad news."

"As you always say," Marlene retorted, "I know he is, Black, I don't need you to tell me."

"So why were you there?" Sirius snapped.

Marlene snapped back, "I was there to make him pay. Then I was going to make you pay. Can I give you a matching black eye?"

He winced at the memory of Marlene giving him the first black eye in DADA, "I'd rather not-"

She punched him again, but it wasn't enough to bruise him this time.

"Why are you still around? I've hit you, insulted you, hurt you, and you still look out for me? Why?" Marlene screamed, clearly frustrated with him.

"Because I care," he retorted, jutting his chin out determinedly.

"I know you don't care, Black," Marlene ground out.

"That's where you're wrong, Marlene, I care very, very much."

* * *

**A/N: OOOOOOOH IT'S GETTING HOT IN HERE.**

**So, how did you like my Regulus? He might make an appearance again if you like him! And Sirius said he wanted to be her boyfriend, eh;)**

**Remember; leave a review telling me your thoughts!**

**The plot is definitely starting to come through now, and Marlene is on the warpath.**

**New chapter coming soon, promise, but I'm editing old chapters before I update, so it might be a little longer than usual.**

**Love to all you amazing readers, mwah!**

**-PIAM3 xxx**


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